Chapter 2
Teddy starts her day about an hour before Arizona does. She comes in to the office to make sure files are ready and organized for the day and takes care of some general housekeeping duties. Their nurse, Mandy, comes in about a half hour later, then Arizona comes in about the same time as the first patient arrives. Usually.
Teddy has been here for about a half an hour, and is sitting at her desk, just waiting for what is about to happen. She knows full well that when her boss and best friend arrives, she will make her entrance by barreling through the door. It isn't going to be a pleasant entrance but is rather going to be like watching fireworks explode.
As Teddy hears the commotion outside the door, she knows the show is about to commence. "Here we go..." she says aloud to herself, hearing Mandy chuckle from the next room. Mandy was sick yesterday, and wasn't here for the goings on, but Teddy made sure to fill her in.
The door flies open and in comes Arizona. An umbrella with rain dripping off of it in one hand and a duffle bag in the other. She drops the duffle bag with a thud and lets out a loud huff.
"Good morning," Teddy smirks.
"Teddy, I swear, I don't know what she is doing, but at this point, I think she is just doing it to tick me the hell off."
"How far away did you have to park today?"
"Same spot I was in yesterday. I mean, what the hell? Never seen the woman before and now, two days in a row, she is stealing my spot!"
"Again... it's not really your spot."
"Do not start with me Teddy..." Arizona says, as she shakes her head.
"I'm just saying..." teddy says as she studies her friend. "Did you not get to hold the skull and crossbones against tattoo girl last night? Because you seem really tense," Teddy says, trying not to chuckle.
"Teddy, I can find a new secretary," Arizona huffs, picking up her umbrella and fastening the Velcro that holds it together, then dropping it in the basket by the door. "I'm sure Addie would love a job."
"Hey, I'm being the best friend right now, not the secretary. Work doesn't start for another... twenty minutes," she says, looking at the clock. "Which brings me to my next question. Why are you here early?"
"Because, I was trying to make sure I got my spot. I didn't think Bonnie over there would be here that early," Arizona says, pointing behind her towards the door.
"Bonnie? I thought you didn't know her name."
"I don't. But, you know... Bonnie and Clyde. That woman is a thief and keeps stealing my spot, so, that's her new name."
"Hm," Teddy says, watching Arizona head to the window and peek through the blinds.
"What?" Arizona asks, as she looks back to see Teddy still watching her.
"So, you really didn't sleep with tattoo girl last night?"
"No. It was late and I was tired."
"Arizona Robbins... too tired to seal the deal? My, my..." Teddy laughs.
"Ugh!" Arizona snarls. "I wasn't tired. She was too busy growling because Bonnie over there winked at me, right in front of her."
"What? You and tattoo girl saw her? And she winked at you?"
"I was on my date and she was on a date with some guy, who actually tried to hit on me not too long ago at the bar."
"If she was on a date, why did she wink at you?"
"They had already left, then she came back in for something and she was by herself. We passed her on our way to our table. She told me she would see me tomorrow, meaning today, then winked. As you can see, that was obviously her way of saying she was going to take my spot. Again."
"You know, you wouldn't be complaining if she were trying to mess with your g-spot," Teddy says, laughing. She is finding herself pretty witty at the moment.
"Are you kidding me right now? Shut up."
Teddy continues to laugh for a few seconds, even hearing Mandy come out of her office laughing, before finally sobering up. "At least your clothes are dry today. I hope you have a pair of extra shoes in that bag. I got really tired of hearing your shoes squeak all day yesterday."
Arizona does nothing but glare at Teddy and Mandy, pick up her bag, and do a squeaky stomp to her office, that causes them to erupt in another fit of laughter.
"I don't think I have laughed this much in ages," Teddy says to Mandy.
Teddy gets up to go look out the window, just in time to see some equipment trucks stopping in front of the empty offices across the road. They are double parked, so they begin to unload materials fairly quickly as Teddy sees Bonnie outside directing them. Where she was wearing a nice pant suit yesterday, today she is dressed very casually in jeans, running shoes, and a t-shirt.
"What are you looking at?"
"Oh, just…looking," Teddy says, heading back to her desk, hoping to avoid the next bout of yelling from the little, feisty blonde.
Arizona looks at her doubtfully and makes her way to the window to see what Teddy was looking at.
"What the hell? She is moving stuff in? That means…. Crap," Arizona stops and shakes her head. "That means she probably leased the space and now…and now..." Suddenly letting go of the blind and gasping, Arizona's face goes red.
"What's wrong with you?" Teddy asks, amused.
"She looked right at the window and waved, winked this stupid exaggerated wink, and then walked right back inside."
Teddy lost it once again. "I love it. I'm going to have to go meet her. I think she and I would make great friends!" Laughing so hard, she begins to snort, causing Arizona to glare and retreat back to her office.
"If you can quit laughing by then, let me know when my first patient arrives. I need this day to go by fast. I already need a drink," she says, just causing Teddy to snort again.
xxxxx
Across the road, Callie notices Arizona looking out her window several times throughout the day. Callie is pretty sure she is annoying the blonde doctor to no end now, and can't help but chuckle each time she sees her at the window. She is pretty proud of herself for her "wave, wink, and dash" earlier. That's a known way to tick someone off. What Arizona doesn't realize is that she isn't the least bit stealthy when she does it, which makes it that much funnier to Callie.
Callie spends the day sitting back and directing the workers, not really needing to be here, but, it's something to do. She signed papers on the office space and her new house yesterday, before coming to spend the day and contemplate how she wants her offices set up and making a few final notes for the contractors. Mark had done an excellent job of getting her pictures and blue-prints so she could have the contractors ready to go after the signing. She decided to make a few changes after arriving yesterday, but all in all, she is very happy with the plans.
Callie is in orthopedic doctor and is planning to have her very own practice, for the first time. She has always worked in larger hospitals, but over the past two years, she has decided she wants to go smaller, set her own hours, and have more control over what surgeries she wants to do or not want to do. She has worked with the local hospital to come to an agreement which gives her hospital privileges for surgeries. Deciding to take care of a few errands, she heads to the local paper a few blocks down to put a help wanted ad in tomorrow's edition. She will need a nurse, receptionist, and a maintenance/janitor employee.
After finishing with the ad, she makes a stop at the small book store to pick up some reading material for the weekend, then heads back to the office.
"Mrs. Torres, I have a question for you," Matt, the lead contractor says, as she walks back in the door.
"Sure. What's up?" Callie asks. "Well, I have a small issue. Some of the electrical stuff is going to need totally redone. I need to put a call in to the electric company but I wanted to show you this..." he says, as he leads her further back into the building.
After a pretty deep discussion on electrical stuff that is way over Callie's head, that lasted way longer than she wants, she decides she needs a drink. She asks the contractors the best place to go, and when everyone is done for the night, way past when they should have been done, she heads to their recommended location.
xxxxx
"Ok, that's the last patient for the day and I am ready for a drink. If you are going with me, you are not giving me crap about anything for the rest of the night," Arizona says, sliding her jacket on.
"You don't have a hot date with tattoo girl again?"
"Um, no. I couldn't convince her I wasn't flirting with Bonnie last night. I told her the story about the parking spot and she thought I was just making that up."
"Wonder why she would find think that..."
"So... I see you aren't going with me then." Arizona says, making a face as she turns the lights out.
"No, no… I'm going. I happen to think you are getting too worked up over this Bonnie lady, but I won't give you any more crap tonight."
Arizona doesn't say anything but just nods her head, holding the door open for Teddy.
xxxxx
Walking into a place called Jax, Callie looks around and finds that it's a little more crowded than what you would expect for a Wednesday night. She finds a small table towards the middle of the room, and makes her way through the crowd to have a seat.
When the waitress comes to take her order, she orders something she hasn't had in a long time, a beer. While married to George, she was never able to go to a regular Joe kind of place. It was always private clubs or high-end establishments, and never just a basic drink. It was always something way classier that was expected.
After her beer is brought to her and her food order taken, she hears a somewhat familiar voice. She looks over to the bar and sees none other than Dr. Robbins, with another woman this time. She sees the woman with Dr. Robbins turn and look her way, then back to Dr. Robbins. Where Dr. Robbins is a bright blonde, the other woman is more of a dirty blonde. They are having a colorful conversation as the dirty blonde turns to look at Callie a few more times before finally turning away from the doctor and making her way to Callie.
"Hey, is this seat taken?"
"Um... no." Callie says, wondering where this conversation is going to go.
"Hi. I'm Teddy. Teddy Altman. I'm Arizona's best friend slash secretary."
"Nice to meet you Teddy," Callie says, not offering her name, just yet.
"So, you are new in town?" Teddy asks, trying to start the conversation that Arizona insisted she not have to begin with. Arizona had just started to relax after keeping an eye on the goings on across the road all afternoon when they saw the brunette walk in.
"Yep," Callie says, taking a sip of her drink.
"So, you met Arizona yesterday and it seems you have really made quite the impression on her," Teddy says, laughing.
"Really? I haven't noticed," Callie says, raising her eyebrows and laughing.
"I'm sure you haven't," Teddy says, laughing along with her.
"She seems to be easy to rile up and I have to say, I can't help but find it amusing. And it's weird because I usually go the extra mile to try to make someone else happy. But, I just... I don't know. I can't explain it. I just find this funny for some reason."
"I have to tell you, I have laughed more the past couple days than I have in a long time. So... job well done at getting under her skin."
"Thank you, I guess?" Callie chuckles as she and Teddy both look over to where Arizona is leaning forward on her barstool, trying to hear any of their conversation. As soon as she sees Teddy and Callie look her way, she hurriedly spins back around on her barstool, to make it not look like she had not been watching. Just her luck, she kicked a little too hard to spin back around, and the stool spins a little too easily, causing Arizona to fly into the floor, knocking her beer off the counter in the process.
Laughter is the first response from Teddy and Callie both, as a shocked Arizona scrambles to right herself and stand up, much to the amusement of everyone else around as well. Luckily the beer spilled on the opposite side of the bar, saving her from ruining another outfit.
Once she is standing up, she sits back on the stool and refuses to look back over to where Callie and Teddy are sitting.
"So, she seems pretty coordinated," Callie chuckles.
"Yeah, so it seems," Teddy chuckles. "Well, I just wanted to introduce myself and aggravate her, and I would say mission accomplished," Teddy says, as she goes to stand, but then pauses. "I see you are moving stuff in across the road. If you need anything, just let me know. I'm in the office every day."
"Thanks. Oh, and I'm Callie. Dr. Callie Torres. I'm putting in Torres Orthopedics."
"Seriously? That's amazing," Teddy smiles.
"Yep. That's the plan anyway. So, if you know of anyone with any secretarial or nursing experience, send them my way."
"You know, we were just talking about a friend of ours today that used to work for the dentist. He was in an accident and had to close. She would be excellent."
"Really? That's amazing. If you don't care, send her my way."
"I'll do that. It was nice to meet you. I better get back before she excuses me from best friend duties," Teddy says laughing.
"It was nice to meet you too," Callie says, smiling.
Callie watches Teddy walk away and back to Arizona, where Arizona flips around and starts talking a mile a minute. Laughing to herself, she finishes her food and orders another drink.
Across the bar, Arizona is really animated, getting onto Teddy for actually leaving her to go talk with the enemy. "I can't believe you went over there. The woman is evil," Arizona remarks, looking back over her shoulder at the brunette.
"I hardly think so. I thought she was very pleasant and she seems very nice, actually."
"Are you on something? She has done nothing but give me a hard time since yesterday."
"I know. But, she has done nothing to me. And, you may as well get used to her, because she isn't going anywhere."
"So, she is really opening something up across the road?" Arizona asks.
"Yep. Seems like your nemesis is also a doctor. And you can quit calling her Bonnie. Her name is Callie Torres. She is opening up Torres Orthopedics.
"What? I've read about her! She is like... a genius. She... she created cartilage from scratch. I have read about her but I have never seen a picture before. Hm," Arizona says, looking back over her shoulder to see that Callie is standing and heading for the dance floor.
"You now find her not only very hot, but also intriguing," Teddy grins, watching her.
"No, stop it. I'm just telling you what I read. That's all. I still think she is spiteful and I don't care to know her."
As Callie heads to the dance floor, she can sense eyes on her. She turns around and catches Arizona watching her walk onto the dance floor. Callie quickly turns around, smiling to herself. She blends in with the crowd and dances. It has been ages since she has done this, and she is having a blast. For a few minutes, she is able to let her hair down and just enjoy herself. It's something that seems foreign to her these days. But she dances. Then dances a little more. A man comes closer and holds his hand out, asking for a dance. Not seeing a reason not to, she accepts the invitation. As the song comes to an end, a slow song comes on and he lifts her hands up around his neck and they continue to dance.
Arizona and Teddy have had a few more drinks, all the while Arizona has managed to keep track of the brunette woman on the dance floor. Teddy noticed Arizona watching her, but decided not to comment.
Teddy strikes up a conversation with a man that came in to sit next to her and feeling ignored, Arizona decides she is going to go have a little fun herself. She finishes her beer and sits the mug down. Arizona winds her way to the dance floor, where she is soon met be an "old friend" of hers. Both women continue to dance and soon enough, Arizona's friend whispers something in her ear. Arizona gets a look about her before once again making eye contact with Callie. Arizona seems to have made a decision and Callie watches as both women make their way over to the bar. Arizona says something to Teddy then grabs her things, then they disappear out the front door.
Shaking her head at the blonde woman, Callie finishes her dance with the gentleman she is with, then excuses herself. He is nice enough and they had some pleasant conversation, but she isn't in the mood for anything more than a dance tonight. She waves to Teddy who is engrossed in a conversation with a handsome man, then makes her way outside to head to the hotel. It's going to be a long day tomorrow with the construction at the office and the movers due at her new house with her furniture.