Chapter 8

Torres Orthopedics is about ready to officially open tomorrow. Addie and Christina have been hard at work, all day, getting patient rooms stocked and ready to go. Callie is in her office going over some paper work and getting patients files lined up for tomorrow. Once they are open, things will fall into place and run smoother, but right now, everyone is pulling double duty to get everything finished in time.

The grand opening ended up getting pushed back a week due to delays in supplies and construction hold ups. But now, everything is back on track and the local paper is scheduled to be here at nine in the morning for the ribbon cutting. Callie was totally opposed to the idea, but Teddy and Addie had talked her into it last week over a lunch at the diner. Lunches have been few and far between because of the hectic schedule she has been keeping in order to get the office opened.

Callie has spent her weekends with her daughter, and Mark even tagged along this past weekend as well. She is thankful he has offered to go with her. The doctors from Mayo have been recommending several new tests, which is good that they are looking at her case, but the tests have been anything but favorable, which then dampens Callie's hopes.

As Callie is responding to an email, she hears someone come through the front door. Wondering who it is, she gets up to head towards the sound. She is surprised to find Teddy, Mandy, and Arizona standing there, with bags of food.

"Surprise," Teddy yells, holding up the bag in her hand. "You guys hungry?"

"Are you kidding? Starving!" Callie says, motioning for them to carry the bags back toward the lunch room, yelling for Addie and Christina to join them.

"This is an unexpected surprise. What's this for?"

"We had a patient keep us over and when we left, saw that you were still here. We know that you haven't stopped much the past couple of weeks, so we thought we would bring you some dinner."

"You guys are amazing," Callie says, looking back over towards them.

Sitting the bags of food down, they all begin to dish food onto their plates. The past two lunches they have had, Arizona has been in her office, working. This is the first time Callie and Arizona have been in the same room in a couple of weeks and Arizona really tried to keep from being here now. Teddy and Mandy unfortunately had other plans for her.

"So, I can't tell you how excited I am! I have been wanting to have Chinese again since Mark bought me some a few weeks ago," Callie says as she begins to dish food onto her plate and dig in.

"Oh, yeah... the weekend away. You have been doing that a good bit... leaving for the weekend," Teddy says, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Yeah. Just a little. So, you guys worked late tonight? That's kind of unusual isn't it?" Callie wanted to get the focus off of herself. She wasn't ready to talk about Katie right at this moment. She loves her daughter, but it's just so hard, especially right now.

"Yeah. We had a patient though that was having some issues with a feeding tube. Took us a little bit to get him situated," Mandy says. "But, I think we finally got it."

"Yeah, it was being a tricky little thing," Arizona says, shaking her head.

"Do pediatricians usually deal with that? I would think you would send them to a specialist for that kind of thing," Christina says, joining in.

"Um, not always. We can actually take care of quite a bit. Arizona is pretty multi-faceted. More than she advertises," Mandy says.

"Yeah," Teddy chips in. "We hear she has many talents. Some of which we aren't going to discuss, because frankly, I don't even know how we know, I just wish we didn't!"

"Teddy!" Arizona yells, not believing her ears, while Callie obviously wasn't expecting that statement and unfortunately, had just taken a drink. Callie's drink ends up all over Arizona. Literally.

As Callie coughs, looking for napkins, for herself and Arizona, she is mortified. The women all scramble to help them out, looking for napkins, unable to find any.

"I'm so sorry!" Callie says.

"No... I would call this one Teddy's fault," Arizona says, glaring at her.

"Guys, they didn't pack us napkins," Teddy says.

"And we haven't totally unpacked boxes in here, so we don't have any paper towels," Addie says.

"Come with me..." Callie says, looking at Arizona. Arizona nods and glares at Teddy as she gets up and follows Callie.

"Here, come in here," Callie says, reaching her office and turning on the light, letting Arizona walk in first. Callie follows and leads her to the back of her office where there is a small bathroom.

"Here," Callie says, reaching under the sink and handing Arizona a hand towel. Looking at Arizona's shirt, she walks to the closet and pulls out a shirt and hands it to Arizona. "Why don't you put this on. I am so, so sorry. I can't believe I did that. I am so, so embarrassed."

"You are embarrassed? Teddy just pretty well called me a ho."

That causes Callie to bust out laughing. "Ok. Maybe you win this one. But, hey, at least it sounds like you are a talented one?"

"Did you seriously just say that?"

"Sorry?" Callie asks, smiling.

"Nice try. Not only are you picking on me, you have me all wet."

As soon as she says it, Arizona can't help but do a mental face palm as she sees Callie's eyes widen. "I didn't... mean it like that. I..."

"I know what you meant," Callie says, chuckling. I'll leave you to... clean up. Nobody likes to walk around uncomfortably... wet."

"Oh my gosh. I don't know that this can get any worse," Arizona says, hiding her head in her hands.

Chuckling, Callie walks out of the bathroom, leaving Arizona to freshen up. As soon as Callie walks out, Arizona takes a second to compose herself. That wasn't the exchange that she was expecting. Although Callie seemed a little surprised at Teddy's comment at first, she didn't shy away from the topic.

Outside the bathroom, Callie is wondering what just got into her. She was making sexy innuendos... to another woman. And not just any woman, the woman that she has barely had a civil conversation with up until tonight.

When Arizona walks out of the bathroom wearing Callie's shirt, Callie takes a second to watch the other woman. Her shirt hangs just a touch loose around the neck, showing more of Arizona's shoulder than she has seen before. For some reason, Callie can't look away, and thinks back to what Mark said, about how Arizona just might think she is attractive.

"Thanks. For the shirt," Arizona says, as she feels Callie's eyes on her. Being in Callie's office, in Callie's shirt, is leaving Arizona to feel somewhat exposed.

"Um, no problem. I learned a long time ago that a change of clothes is essential to dealing with patients. It's the first thing I brought in. But... It's my fault. For making you wet."

"Callie..." Arizona says, as she gets closer to the woman. She realizes she really should say something. Maybe Callie is used to joking with other women, but Arizona is having thoughts that she shouldn't be having. So maybe she needs to point out that she shouldn't really joke with someone like herself when you look like Callie. Because what this little back and forth banter is doing to Arizona, Callie probably has no clue.

"Your boyfriend would probably get jealous if he found that out," Arizona says, rather slowly. She is standing right in front of Callie at this point, watching her. She is waiting to see if Callie realizes she is playing with fire or not.

Realizing how close Arizona is getting to her, makes Callie's breath hitch. She has never been this close to another woman, in this way. She realizes at this moment, everything she thought about herself, may have been wrong. Maybe she doesn't know herself at all, because all of a sudden, she has thoughts she has never had before.

"You know, you are a mystery to me," Callie tells her. "We have yet to have a really nice conversation. And yet, here we are. In the same room. You with your hands in my shirt. Literally."

"Callie, I think you should stop," Arizona says, shaking her head. "Don't keep saying things like that, because you are starting to sound like maybe you wouldn't mind it. And if I think that's a possibility, then I might do something that you might not really want me to. And I'm not that kind of woman. I don't take what belongs to someone else.

"Arizona..." Callie whispers, her eyes wondering down to Arizona's lips. "You should know, Mark isn't my boyfriend. Mark is just a friend."

"Oh, I thought..."

"Yeah. I know. I never really corrected you guys."

"No. You didn't," Arizona says, looking at Callie's lips.

"I um..." Callie starts to say something else when they are interrupted.

"Arizona! I just got a call from..." Teddy walks in holding her phone up, but stops when she sees the two women standing so close together. "Oh! I'm sorry... I didn't mean to interrupt. It's just," Teddy holds the phone up. "Anthony's mom called. They are in the ER. she says he is coughing up blood."

"Oh, Ok. I uh..." Arizona takes a step away but looks back at Callie. "I um, we need to go. I will, give you your shirt back later."

"Um, Yeah. That's... that's fine. No hurry," Callie says.

"Arizona... we need to go," Teddy says, pointing towards the door. Mandy is grabbing the car.

"Yeah, ok. Let's go..." Arizona says, looking at Callie one more time before following Teddy out.

When Arizona leaves, Callie walks over to her desk and sits down. "Oh my gosh. What in the hell just happened?"

"Hey," Addie says, walking in to see Callie sitting at her desk. "You ok? We were starting to wonder if you strangled each other back here."

"Um no. Nothing like that," Callie says, shaking her head.

"What's going on?" Addie asks, kind of worried.

"Um... I don't even know where to start. I mean, Arizona and I... we don't like each other. And yet, we were just here, talking and..." Callie stops and looks up at Addie, afraid she is going to be judged.

"Can I tell you something? Without you getting mad?"

"Addie..."

"No... Listen. I know we don't know each other that well. And I have never seen what you look like when you like someone, but... I'm guessing, it's a lot like this right here," Addie says, pointing to Callie. "Because even if you two haven't seen it, when the two of you are together... I don't know. There are sparks. Big ones. And we all see them. Sometimes, it's the people who drive us nuts that we are attracted to the most."

"I've never dated a woman, Addie. Never. But there is something about her that just... gets under my skin and draws me in at the same time."

"We know. Like I said, we all see it. So maybe, just maybe, you need to realize it isn't that you don't like her, but maybe that you do."

Nodding, Callie says, "Yeah, I think you might be right."

XXXXXXX

"What the hell did I walk into?" Teddy asks Arizona as they get into the car.

"Teddy, I love you, but I'm not talking about this right now."

"I think we need to. You were in there for twenty minutes. And when I walk in, you look like you are getting ready to jump her bones."

"I did not!"

"Yeah, you did. So, you probably need to chill. She has a boyfriend, Arizona. You don't steal people away."

"Robbins... do I need to remind you what happened the last time someone had a significant other?"

"Ok... For one, I didn't know she had a significant other. Two... He isn't her boyfriend."

"Oh."

"Yeah. She never said he was, she just... never corrected us."

"So... you would have kissed her if Teddy hadn't walked in?"

"I don't know. Maybe?" Arizona says.

"Maybe my ass. You should have seen them," Teddy says.

"Let's just change the subject for now. We need to figure out what's going on with Anthony..."