Widow Robbins
Chapter 8
Callie hadn't seen Arizona all morning, and she hadn't seen any text messages, despite having checked her phone at least twenty times to see if there'd been any response to her own texts. Since forming their friendship, it was highly unusual for her to have not heard from Arizona either by phone, text or in person. She wondered if they were going to have lunch together or if Arizona was too busy with plans for her big surgery with Addison.
She also needed the details for the twins' birthday party. She had no idea what time it was or where it would be. And she hadn't a clue what kind of gifts to get the girls. She hoped Arizona could make some suggestions. The last time she'd bought a present for a child was for one of her cousin's kids. The party she'd attended had been over-the-top, with a carousel and way too expensive gifts. There'd also been a clown. Callie shuddered when she recalled the clown. He'd given her major creepy vibes. She'd never cared for clowns and truly hoped that the twins' party wouldn't have one.
Still feeling a little uneasy about not hearing a word from Arizona, Callie made a quick stop by the coffee cart to pick up Arizona's favorite. She wandered up to peds to see if she could find Arizona. She spotted Alex and two of the interns, Sadie and Lexie bickering by the nurses' station.
As Callie approached the three young doctors, Sadie greeted her with a flirty sounding, "Hi, Dr. Torres. Is there something I can do for you?"
Alex and Lexie stopped their current argument and shared a look. "What the hell?" Alex mouthed, confused by Sadie's tone of voice.
"Yeah, whatever. Have any of you seen Dr. Robbins?"
"Not recently, but I could help you look," Sadie offered, her words seeming to imply something different.
"You want to steer clear of Robbins," Alex said, cutting off Sadie. "She's on the warpath today."
"What are you talking about?"
"Little Grey and I have been on her service today. She's been a bitch all morning, grumbling about language and interns using the peds On Call room."
"Well if you hadn't said 'crap' while inserting a central line on a four year old." Lexie interrupted him.
"How was I supposed to know the kid was going to start copying me? And crap isn't a bad word," he defended himself. "It replaces one."
"It wasn't just that word, but other words. Plus she said her twins and several of the little peds patients have been singing or humming some risque songs."
Alex's eyebrows drew together on thought. "Risque? What the fuck is that?"
"Alex!" both Lexie and Callie shouted.
"Now I understand why Dr. Robbins is upset if you've been swearing all morning," Callie said with an accusatory glare.
"Don't blame me," Alex said. "Robbins has been pissy all morning." He grabbed a chart. "C'mon, Harris. Make yourself useful and go get my labs. You need to get to work instead of flirting with Torres."
After they walked away, Callie said with a nervous laugh, "She's not flirting with me."
Lexie discreetly looked down, pretending to look at the chart in her hands.
"Was she? Why would she if she was?" Callie pondered aloud.
"Oh, that's just Sadie. She flirts with everyone," Lexie blurted.
"Gee, thanks, Little Grey. That makes me feel so much better," Callie said, her sarcasm hiding how insulted she felt.
"I - uh - I," Lexie stammered.
"Just walk away, Little Grey."
"Dr. Robbins went into Dr. Kenley's office a little while ago," Lexie said before skittering away.
What a crazy conversation, Callie thought. Sadie Harris was NOT flirting with me, she decided. Lexie and Alex don't know what they are talking about. As much as she tried to convince herself of this, comments from Addison and others regarding Erica and Arizona had Callie wondering if she was putting off some sort of lesbian vibe.
Not wanting to appear overly eager or needy, Callie hung around the nurses' station. While there, she pretended to be reading something on her phone all while keeping an eye on Dr. Kenley's office door. She was startled enough by seeing the door open and Arizona walking toward her that she almost knocked over the coffee she'd brought.
She smiled as Arizona neared her, but her smile faded when she saw Arizona's eyes glistening with unshed tears.
"Arizona, are you okay? What's wrong?" Callie asked solicitously.
"Not now, Torres," she said brusquely as she continued down the hall to her own office.
Callie's head jerked as though she had been slapped. She had never heard Arizona use that tone, much less call her by her last name. "But, but… I brought you coffee," she said lamely to no one..
Oddly hurt by Arizona's brush off, Callie debated whether or not to follow the blonde. Deciding that she'd let it go, for now, Callie tossed out the coffee and headed back for the pit. Hopefully she'd find something to keep her busy until her shift ended.
# # # # # # # # # #
Callie fretted throughout the night and into the next day by Arizona's continued silence. She wasn't sure what she'd done wrong, but Lexie's comment the previous day about the peds patients and the twins singing songs had her wondering. What did Lexie call them? Risque? Could Arizona be mad about that? She already knew Arizona was upset with her leaving the girls with Cristina on Saturday. Was there something more to it?
Once again she debated with herself about approaching Arizona. On one hand, if Arizona was angry with her, she wasn't sure if she wanted to face her. On the other hand, Arizona had been upset when she last saw her, and she was worried. The image of Arizona fighting tears remained at the forefront of her mind. Callie wondered why a day later she still felt this unwavering need to wrap Arizona in her arms and brush away her tears. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Lexie and Addison have gotten in my head. I'm not gay. I don't have feelings for Arizona, she thought to herself.
Still unsettled by her thoughts about Arizona, Callie headed for the cafeteria. It was later than she usually went to lunch, but she still looked around the room in hopes of spotting Arizona. Seeing a different blonde head of hair, she quickly changed direction and headed for the table of other residents. She was doing a little of her own avoiding; namely, Erica. She hadn't had lunch with Erica in a long time, and she really didn't want to have it with her today; certainly not while she was thinking about Arizona. Erica seemed to have a bug up her ass whenever Arizona's name came up and Callie was tired of it.
She soon found herself sitting next to Cristina, with Meredith (of course), Alex, Izzie, Lexie and George also at the same table. It was easy to tune out their chatter about the cases they were on and any gossip they were sharing.
Just as she was about to rethink her choice to sit with the others, her pager suddenly went off, as well as everyone else's.
"Ooh, maybe it's a big all-hands disaster," Cristina said, reaching for hers.
"It's a room number and a time," Meredith said, reading it aloud.
"What room is that?" Alex growled.
"It's the Skills Lab," Lexie explained.
"You'd know that, devil spawn, if you'd actually spent any time there," Cristina said.
"Least I've been in a real OR instead of a lab," he sneered back.
"I wonder why we're being summoned," George asked as they exited the cafeteria..
"Not just us," Izzie said, observing other residents and interns leaving the room as well.
"Maybe they're announcing some big surgical competition for us," Cristina added hopefully.
"Like the sparkle pager?" Izzie wanted a rematch.
"Nah, that's just for interns," Cristina scoffed.
Callie trailed after the rest, not in any hurry to go to the Skills Lab. As she walked down the hallway behind the noisy group, she felt a bump to her shoulder. She glanced to see Sadie Harris walking beside her.
"Going to the lab, Dr. Torres?" Sadie asked.
"Like everyone else," Callie replied tonelessly, looking at her phone.
"Mind if I walk with you?" The intern's tone related an ulterior motive.
"Suit yourself." She tried to ignore Meredith's friend, but the other woman kept tossing her hair and brushing against her. Once they arrived at the skills lab, Callie chose to lean against the back wall, away from the crowd but Sadie remained next to her, continuously bumping their shoulders together. She scowled at the intern and shoved her phone and hands in the pockets of her lab coat.
Arizona stood in front of the white board at the front of the room and waited for the group to settle. Her gaze instinctually found Callie at the rear of the room. She frowned slightly when she noticed the intern with the accent in Callie's personal space. Jealousy rushed through her, though she couldn't understand why. Her normally pleasant expression hardened as she remembered the reason for this meeting. Her frown deepened when she saw Erica Hahn follow Mark Sloan, Addison and Derek Shepherd into the room.
"Get lost, intern," Erica snarled at Sadie. "Go sit with the rest of the minions."
With a lingering look over her shoulder at Callie, Sadie left and found a seat near Lexie and the other interns.
The room was full of curious murmurs and loud chatter. The interns and residents saw chief resident Bailey and Dr. Kenley, the head of peds, standing at the front of the room with Dr. Robbins.
"Quiet down, everyone!" Bailey ordered from beside her. "Please give Dr. Robbins your complete, undivided attention." She added her best glare to let them know she was dead serious.
"Thank you, Dr. Bailey. For those of you who have not worked with me yet, I am Dr. Arizona Robbins, pediatric surgical fellow." She paused to write the words "age appropriate behavior for patients" in large block letters and underlined each word.
She turned to face the large group. "When working with children, we need to remember that they are NOT adults in miniature. They believe in magic. They play pretend. They believe there's fairy dust in their IV bags. They wish and they hope and that makes them more resilient than adults. They recover faster and survive worse. They believe."
She looked to the rear of the room and met Callie's gaze. Callie smiled broadly at the introduction of Arizona's speech, bolstering her resolve.
Erica scoffed next to Callie. "Fairy dust IV bags? Please." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms when Callie shushed her.
Arizona took a deep breath and continued. "In peds, anything is possible. Which is why it was so distressing to enter the pediatric unit yesterday to a floor full of scared children and multiple parents complaining about foul-mouthed, oversexed doctors." Her gaze narrowed as she stared in Cristina and Alex's direction. Both shifted uncomfortably. "Do you people not know any age appropriate songs or words when you are around children? It bears repeating, these are not adults in miniature, They are children. They hear everything, see everything and repeat everything they hear or see."
Mark nudged Callie with his shoulder. "Damn, Blondie's hot when she's angry."
"God, you're such a pig, Sloan," Erica huffed from the other side of Callie.
"Can you both be quiet?" she hissed though she did agree with Mark's assessment.
Arizona continued at the front of the room. "Final Destination or Scream are NOT appropriate movies for a ten year old. The music of Madonna and Eminem are NOT appropriate for five year olds. Cursing is completely unacceptable and unprofessional. You are not construction workers on a highway. You are doctors. Do better. BE better. Am I clear?" She paused to look around the room.
Alex leaned toward Cristina. "What did you do to piss off Robbins?"
"I taught her munchkins real music when Callie was babysitting this weekend," she replied.
"Sure you should've pissed her off? Don't you have a big surgery with her this week?"
"Shit!" Cristina groaned.
"Maybe I can get in on the surgery. I've always worked well with Montgomery." he said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"No way you'd get it," Cristina fired back.
"Then Hahn will steal it from you, like she always does."
Cristina crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at the thought of missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime surgery. All because Callie had to babysit Robbins' brats. What was up with that, anyway, Cristina thought. When did Torres start being buddy-buddy with rollergirl?
"And the peds on call room is off-limits for anything other than sleeping. Alone. There will be no canoodling on my floor," Arizona concluded. "Again, do I make myself clear?"
Meredith's eyebrows shot up in amusement. She and Cristina looked at one another and both mouthed the word "Canoodling" and then they snickered.
Waiting for the group to nod their heads, Arizona added one last reproach. "Anyone - and I mean anyone - that violates these orders will be assigned to scut in peds for a month."
Cristina waited in her seat while the others filed out of the room. She had no idea how to approach the angry peds fellow. She slowly made her way to Arizona who was erasing the words from the whiteboard.
"Dr. Robbins?"
Arizona turned around. "Yes, Dr. Yang? What can I do for you?" she asked, her hands resting on the table in front of her.
"I'd like to apologize for teaching your daughters good music."
Despite her anger, Arizona could see how much it pained the resident to apologize. "Apology, such as it is, accepted."
"Does this mean I'm off the surgery?"
"As angry as I am, Dr. Yang, I honor my word. You're still my choice."
"Thank you, Dr. Robbins."
"But Yang, stay away from my kids."
"You won't have to worry about that happening." Cristina said with a grimace.
"Good. Now get back to work. We have a meeting with Dr. Montgomery in - " Arizona glanced at her watch. "- two hours. I expect you to be prepared."
Cristina nodded and quickly left the room with as much dignity as she could muster, all while cursing her roommate under her breath for ever having brought the kids to their apartment in the first place.
Callie had remained in the back of the room, waiting her turn to speak with Arizona. She felt an odd burst of pride when she heard the chief speaking with Dr. Kenley as they passed.
"Looks like you've found your successor," Richard Webber said, clapping Jordan Kenley on the back.
"I agree," Kenley said as they exited the room.
Smiling at their words, Callie turned her attention back to the front of the room. When she saw that Arizona had spotted her, she tentatively walked toward the front of the room.
"Can I help you with something, Dr. Torres?" Arizona asked, her voice frosty.
"Why am I being lumped in with the minions?" she blurted. She'd been put off balance by Arizona's demeanor and the use of her formal title.
Arizona spotted Sadie lingering in the hallway and felt another wave of anger and jealousy course through her. She tried to tamp down the feelings but failed. "I TRUSTED you with my kids. I don't let just anyone near my girls. But I thought I could trust you. I left them in YOUR care. I don't know Yang. I've barely worked with her. Everything I DO know about her is based on what you and Addison have told me. And the first thing you did was throw them at her and run away."
"That's not fair. I got paged."
"Then you should have brought them back here and I would have figured something out." Arizona took a deep breath to steady herself. "Do you know what Vivvy said to me this morning when I left for work?"
Callie remained silent, wary about what else the girls had been exposed to when she'd left them with Yang.
"She told me to be a badass at work. A BADASS!" Arizona had been doubly shocked when that word had come from Vivvy's mouth; sweet, gentle Vivvy! Cam was more of hellion and it wouldn't have been completely unexpected to have her say it. Maybe not when she was five, but it wouldn't be surprising for her to curse first.
Callie blushed and looked at the floor.
"I wonder where she learned that word, hmmm? I know I didn't teach it to her. She's never said anything like that before. Well, until she spent a few hours at your place."
"Oh, come on, Arizona. She could've heard it anywhere," Callie protested. "All we did was play Mario Kart and eat pizza."
"Are you denying it was said in front of them?" She paused to give Callie a chance to respond. "Be very careful what you say, Callie. I don't take you for a liar"
Callie sighed, knowing that Arizona was right. "Okay, yes, Yang might've said badass, but it was meant as a compliment of your surgical skills."
"That's no excuse. That's not the kind of language I want my almost five year olds to be using and I certainly don't want to hear my patients saying it. This is the last thing I need to be worrying about before my big surgery with Addison." Arizona rubbed her forehead. She could feel a stress headache coming on.
"Does that mean I'm uninvited to the birthday party?" Callie asked after a few moments of silence. She couldn't understand why the thought of being uninvited to a children's birthday party bothered her so much.
"Of course you are still invited, Callie. The girls invited you and they would be disappointed if you weren't there."
"So...uh...where does that leave us?"
Both women were surprised by Callie's usage of the word. Was there an "us"? Why was the possibility of an "us" ending so terrifying?
Arizona's shoulders slumped slightly. "I need time to be mad, Callie. A lot happened this weekend. Steps forward and backward. Maybe it's just me being overprotective, but I don't like what transpired."
Callie nodded, still speechless after asking about their relationship status. Do we have a relationship status? Why the hell did I ask about "us"?
Arizona looked at her longingly for a few moments unsure of what to say. Finally, she walked away from the resident. Does Callie want there to be an "us"? I'm feeling things for her that I haven't felt since Jillian died, but after this weekend, how can I trust her with the girls?
