Widow Robbins

Chapter 3

Callie scrolled through the texts from her sister as she waited in the cafeteria line. After reading through the litany of complaints about her parents, she was never happier to be so far away from Miami. Aria was a bit of a party girl, but even if she was, their parents were a bit extreme in their demands and meddling.

The ortho resident was soon distracted by the two gossiping scrub nurses in line in front of her.

"Is that Dr. Robbins over there?" one of them asked.

"Yes. She's the new peds fellow. Do you know her?"

"Yes. I worked with her at Seattle Pres before I came here three months ago."

"What's she like? I haven't been in an OR yet with her."

"She's great. The nurses and patients loved her over there." The two women moved forward a few steps. "Dr. Burbank, the head of peds at Seattle Pres, was crushed when she didn't apply for the fellowship there. He all but guaranteed her an attending position. I left before I knew where she was going. I always wondered where she'd end up."

"Well, the talk here is Kenley is thrilled to have her."

"She's a fantastic surgeon."

The two women grabbed their trays. Callie was right on their heels, trying to hear what else they had to say about Dr. Robbins. She didn't understand why, but she was drawn to the blonde and she hardly knew anything about her.

"She was chief resident last year," the woman continued. "It was pretty amazing when you consider she'd been widowed two years before that, and she has twin girls. Gosh, the girls must be four or five by now."

"She's kind of hot," her friend commented.

Callie was a bit shocked by the remark and the other woman's laugh. Before she had a chance to hear a reply, Erica was suddenly standing in front of her. Callie ignored her friend, looking past her for the two nurses. She was disappointed to see that they had disappeared in the crowd.

"What do you want, Erica?" Callie asked irritably, but not really understanding why she was feeling that way.

Erica threw her hands up and took a step back. "Whoa. Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?"

"Sorry," Callie muttered.

"I was just going to have lunch with you, like we usually do."

"Whatever," she grumbled as she grabbed a piece of lasagna and a bottle of water.

"Surgery not go well?" Erica asked.

"My surgery was fine. I'm just… I'm hungry."

The pair maneuvered through the line. As they approached a table at the front of the cafeteria, Callie noticed that the nurse from Seattle Pres was sitting with Arizona. She scowled as she dropped into the awaiting chair. Why did that stupid nurse have to swoop in and sit with Arizona? Why did she care so much about some random nurse having lunch with her new…? She struggled to put a name to what Arizona was to her. Patient's mother was true but there was more to their interactions. Friend seemed too forward, too soon. Yet colleague while true didn't seem like a strong enough term.

"And so I slept with Sloan." Erica's voice cut into Callie's musings.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You're not listening to me." Erica said flatly.

"I've got a lot on my mind." Callie responded as she pushed her serving of lasagna around on her plate before she brought a forkful to her mouth and chewed slowly.

"You can talk to me, you know. I mean, isn't that something friends do?"

Callie glanced over at Arizona's table once more.

"When you worked at Seattle Pres, did you know Dr. Robbins?" she asked.

"Yes. Why?" Erica asked, pushing back the sudden spark of jealousy that she felt.

"No reason, really," Callie answered, hoping she sounded nonchalant. "Just curious, I guess. I treated one of the girls for a broken arm recently. Plus, I've heard some talk around the hospital and just wondered."

"Cal, you and I both know that you can only believe half of what you see and none of what you hear around this place."

"I know. I know. That's why I'm asking you."

Erica sat back in her chair for a minute to ponder her response. She wanted to keep her answers short and professional. She detested workplace gossip. The amount of it that ran rampant through Seattle Grace was appalling to her and even if she didn't personally like Arizona Robbins, she refused to add to the gossip.

"She's an excellent surgeon," she admitted grudgingly.

Callie was a little surprised by Erica's statement. She'd never known Erica to praise any other surgeon, and it only added to Callie's curiosity.

Sensing Callie wanted more information, Erica continued. "She has Yang's ambition and intensity, Little Grey's memory, and I think she mainlines cotton candy. No one is that sweet naturally." She picked up her bottle of water. "She makes my teeth ache," she ended with a grimace.

When she realized Erica was finished talking about Arizona, Callie ate the rest of her lunch in silence, only half-listening to Erica's endless complaints about the residents, Cristina Yang in particular. The ortho resident kept stealing glances over at the peds surgeon. Her own stint as chief resident had been a disaster. How had Arizona Robbins managed it as a widow with two small children? She felt like even more of a failure. All she had to contend with during her brief stay as chief resident was a cheating husband and a divorce.

She looked across the table at her friend and wondered why she felt "stuck" by having lunch with Erica. It was always the same thing when she had lunch with her. Erica would always talk about her surgeries and rarely Callie would get to talk about her own. And of course, there was always the moaning and groaning about the residents and interns.

When Erica was paged and had to leave, Callie wondered why she felt a sense of relief. After tossing her trash out. Callie headed for the elevators. She was pleased to see Arizona waiting for the elevator to arrive.

"Dr. Torres," she said brightly, but Callie noticed that there were no dimples in her smile and she almost looked sad.

"Dr. Robbins. No kids today?"

"Not today, no."

They stepped into the elevator together.

"Tuesday, right?" Callie asked, hoping she remembered correctly.

"Yes, and Wednesday and Thursday this week."

Arizona was touched that Callie remembered their talk on Friday, moreso when the resident inquired about Cam's soccer and Vivvy's swimming,

"And I think I remember something about dance, as well."

Arizona gave Callie a real smile and Callie suddenly felt butterflies in her stomach when Arizona's dimples appeared. She resisted the urge to shake her head to clear that unexpected thought from her brain.

"Well, I'm still trying to figure out how Cam can be so talented on a soccer field and have two left feet when in dance class. Vivvy is so graceful and she really enjoys it. Cam, not so much."

Callie laughed as she imagined the two sisters dancing and bickering the way only sisters could.

"You made quite an impression on my daughters, Dr. Torres."

"Please, it's Callie." she said reaching out and touching her arm in affirmation. For some odd reason she hoped she'd made an impression on their mother as well.

"Arizona," she offered back.

"Arizona," Callie repeated.

"So, since we're now on a first name basis, Callie, and my daughters think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread, would you like to join us for lunch tomorrow, say around noon?"

The elevator stopped at the fourth floor and the doors opened.

"I'd love to," Callie said, hoping she didn't sound too eager.

"Great. I'll see you then."

Arizona popped her heels out on her shoes and rolled away. Callie could only shake her head and laugh. When the door closed it was then that she realized she'd forgotten to press the button for the surgical floor and hoped that Arizona hadn't noticed.

# # # # # # # # # #

Even with a mask covering Bailey''s face. Meredith Grey could tell that the chief resident was annoyed and was growing more and more irritated as the surgery progressed. Meredith knew it wasn't the surgery as everything seemed to be going smoothly as they proceeded to remove the spleen on their patient, a man who had crashed his motorcycle on the way to work that morning.

"Torres!" Bailey finally snapped.

"What?" Callie asked as she inspected the break on the patient's lower leg.

"Stop humming. You're driving me crazy."

"What are you talking about? I'm not humming."

"You are. You have been since we scrubbed in." Bailey paused to place a stitch before directing her attention back to Callie. "And it's not even a song that's recognizable. It's just random and it needs to stop. Now."

"Sorry," Callie apologized. "I didn't realize I was."

"Why are you humming?"

"I'm just in a good mood, I guess," Callie said with a shrug of her shoulders and then picked up the drill.

Bailey wasn't sure if she was happy to hear that or not. Callie's mood swings since her divorce were legendary.

"Why are you in a good mood?"

Callie laughed and pressed the button on the drill. "I guess I just like a good, complicated surgery," she explained before bending over the patient's leg. There was no way she was going to admit to anyone, even to herself, that her lunch plans with Arizona and her daughters was part of her good mood.

"Well, keep your good mood to yourself," Bailey ordered.

Callie looked up at the clock as she scrubbed out and saw that it was almost noon. The early morning surgery had lasted longer than she'd expected. She realized that she didn't know where she was supposed to meet Arizona and that she had no way of getting in touch with her. Paging the peds surgeon wouldn't be appropriate and they hadn't exchanged phone numbers. She didn't even know if they were at that point of having each other's number.

As she stepped into the hallway, she spotted Arizona at the nurses' station but before she could walk over, Erica was in front of her.

"Ready for lunch, Cal?" the cardio surgeon asked.

"Oh, um, I have plans today. Sorry,"

"With Sloan?" Erica's face crinkled in distaste.

"No."

"Well, I guess I'll just grab something and eat it in my office."

"Whatever. I'm running late."

Erica couldn't help but notice the smile on Callie's face as she walked away. She was about to leave the floor when she saw Callie stop at the nurses' station. Robbins was there and she greeted Callie with a similar smile. When Callie threw her head back with a loud laugh, Erica had decided she'd seen enough. Her appetite gone, she spun on her heel and walked away.

Callie slipped her hands into the pockets of her lab coat and slowed her pace as she approached Arizona. She was struck with a sudden bout of nervousness and felt giddy and it confused her at first. She quickly passed it off as being happy to have maybe found a new friend; a friend that didn't know her as the resident divorced from an intern or the fired chief resident.

"Hey," she greeted Arizona casually.

"Dr. Torres," Arizona said, almost stunned by the beautiful smile on the resident's face. "Callie," she corrected herself and smiled back.

"Ready for lunch?"

"Almost," Arizona answered as she finished making a note in a chart. "Just one thing I have to explain."

"What's that?"

"I don't want you to think I'm a bad mother, but the girls got into some trouble this morning."

"Are they not going to have lunch with us?"

Arizona was oddly touched by the disappointed tone in Callie's voice.

"Oh, no, we are. It's just that Cam has decided that Vivvy having a cast with zebra stripes and she doesn't is too much for her."

"Oh, no, did she break her arm, too?"

"No, nothing like that," Arizona laughed as she handed the chart back to a nurse. "She and Vivvy drew stripes on Cam's arm so that they would match."

Callie tossed her head back and laughed. "Tell me it was washable paint."

"Nope. They found a sharpie while I was getting ready for work. I could only get some of it washed off before we had to leave."

Callie shook her head in amusement as the two women headed for daycare.

"Do Cam and Vivvy know I'm joining them for lunch?"

"No. I thought we could surprise them."

Callie stayed in the hallway and away from the windows while Arizona went into the room to fetch her daughters. When the Robbins family emerged from daycare, the girls spotted Callie and immediately ran over to her.

"Dr. Callie!"

"Hi, Dr. Callie! Are you gonna have lunch with us?"

Callie nodded and the girls clapped their hands. Callie had always considered herself a badass, but she found the girls' shirts (Cam with Tigger on the front, Vivvy with Winne the Pooh) to be completely adorable.

"I want to walk with Dr. Callie," Cam declared.

"No, me," Vivvy demanded.

"Why don't one of you walk me to lunch and then one of you walk back with me?" Callie bent over and whispered, "you don't want your mommy to be by herself, do you?"

The girls shook their heads no in unison. "I'll walk with you, Mommy," Vivvy said, talking Arizona's hand.

"I'll walk with you first, Dr. Callie," Cam added.

Callie knew she lost a few more points on her badass meter when Cam took her hand and began swinging it.

"Who's that on your shirt?" Callie asked.

"Tigger! He's my favorite. Mommy said I bounce around a lot like him."

"I bet you do," Callie agreed.

Cam chattered the whole way to the cafeteria, hopping and skipping as they made their way to the cafeteria. Callie couldn't keep up with everything the young girl said, but to be fair, she was a little distracted by watching Vivvy walking with her mother. More pointedly, she was watching Vivvy's mother, and it was unnerving Callie.

Callie marveled at how easily Arizona seemed to just breeze her way through getting the twins their lunches and settling them at a small round table with four chairs in the corner of the cafeteria. She supposed Arizona had years of experience but she couldn't imagine being able to do it for one child, let alone two.

"How was your surgery?" Arizona asked as she stuck a straw into her drink.

Callie glanced over at the twins, unsure if talking about surgery in front of them was appropriate. The girls weren't paying attention to the two women; they were busy dividing up a small bag of pretzels and a small bag of Cheez-its..

"Motorcycle accident, wasn't it?"

Callie was oddly pleased that Arizona had known about the surgery.

"Yeah. It took a bit longer than we thought it would. Bailey and Grey took care of the internal injuries and I took care of his leg," she explained.

"Lexie Grey?"

"No, her sister Meredith. She's a few years ahead of her."

Arizona nodded, glad for the clarification. She was still trying to get all the doctors' names and faces straightened out. She'd worked with a few interns and residents, but they rotated out of peds almost as fast as they rotated into the department. She'd been impressed with Dr. Bailey and hoped she could persuade the chief resident to come over to peds.

Putting aside the butterflies that suddenly appeared in her stomach, and trying hard not to stare at the beautiful ortho resident, Arizona attempted to continue with small talk.

"So, did you go to med school here in Seattle?"

"No, Miller in Miami. I grew up in Miami." Callie took a bite of her lasagna. "You?"

"Hopkins." She looked at the twins who were happily munching on carrot sticks and chattering between themselves as they so often did.. "Did you always want ortho?"

"Yeah, I always kind of had a thing for bones," Callie said, suddenly shy.

"I think it's great. So many residents want to be what I call the glamour surgeons - like neuro or cardiology. And we don't have near enough women in ortho."

"Well, credit to you for being a peds surgeon. I could never do it. I have trouble when I have to operate on kids. I don't know how you do it." She looked over at the girls. "Cam, did you break your arm, too?" she asked, tapping Cam's arm that had been decorated with sharpie stripes.

"No," she answered with a giggle, her dimples popping.

"She wanted to copy me," Vivvy explained. "She don't like it if I have something and she don't."

"Doesn't, not don't," Arizona gently corrected. "She doesn't like it."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't break it, Cam. I would be sad if you did and didn't come to me," Callie said.

"When I breaked a bone, you'll be my doctor," Cam assured her.

"Let's hope there aren't any more broken bones for either of you," Arizona said.

"Your odds aren't good on that one," Callie whispered to Arizona.

"I know, but a girl can dream, can't she?" She looked at her watch. "Finish up, girls. Mommy's got to get back to work."

With matching pouts, the girls quickly ate the rest of their lunch and gathered their trash.

"It's my turn to walk with Dr. Callie," Vivvy reminded everyone as she took Callie's hand. Cam frowned briefly, then smiled as she grabbed her mom's hand.

From across the room, Erica glowered at the foursome and how easily they all seemed to get along. She'd never known that Callie was so in to kids. She'd always thought that she and Callie saw eye-to-eye on not having kids.

"Do you have any children, Callie?" Arizona asked as they walked toward the elevators after leaving the daycare.. "You're really good with them."

"No, just a failed Vegas marriage."

Arizona didn't want to intrude, but she was curious and Callie's blase manner about it was clearly a facade.

"I'm sure there's a story there," Arizona said, trying not to sound too nosy.

"Everyone knows about it." Callie said trying to brush it off but she was bothered by it and quickened her gait.

"I'm not everyone. I'm the newbie who doesn't pay attention to hospital gossip because I know how bad it sucks to be the target of gossip," Arizona said, looking straight ahead.

Callie looked at Arizona with a new appreciation. The peds surgeon didn't seem to be judging her. She almost seemed to be commiserating with her.

"Sorry. It's a touchy subject for me," Callie explained, pushing the button for the elevator.

"Forget I asked. It was rude and not really any of my business." They stepped into the elevator. "Would you like to do lunch again with the girls and I?" Arizona asked. "I promise no more nosy questions."

"Sure. That'd be fun."

"Can I have your number? I'll text you and we can go together, work permitting."

Once Callie and Arizona exchanged numbers, texts flew frequently between the pair. Most of their texts were about the girls, making lunch plans, or work. Sometimes Arizona would text Callie a bad joke that was circulating around the peds department or one the girls had told her. Callie was happy to have a friend who didn't care about the drama in the hospital. It felt good to be accepted, though sometimes she caught herself staring at the blonde and it gave her some very odd feelings.

It didn't take long, but Callie's lunches with Erica were swept aside in favor of spending time with the widow and her twins. Thursday lunches were usually long lunches where they escaped the hospital in favor of picnics at the playground or cozy outdoor cafes. Every Friday, Callie invited Arizona to join her and the other doctors at the bar across the street, but each time, Arizona would make excuses why she couldn't be there. Arizona knew her excuses were getting thin, but she didn't feel right going to a bar while the kids were at home waiting for her. However, everything changed at the beginning of August with the arrival of Seattle Grace legend Dr. Addison Montgomery.