Chapter 24
Arizona Robbins left Katie's room about two hours ago. Since then, Callie has been holding Katie's hand, listening to Carlos Torres question her about almost everything under the sun. She is now hoping that he doesn't ask the one question she doesn't want to answer.
Luck is definitely not on her side as he says, "So, have you met anyone since you have been here?"
"Oh, yeah. I've made several friends."
"That's wonderful. But, have you met anyone? Surely there are some available doctors around here, or lawyers. Hospitals have those too…"
"Dad, I'm sure there might be, but I am just not interested in looking around." And that's a fact. She found what she wasn't even looking for.
"You can't stay single forever, Calliope."
Sighing, Callie says, "Dad. I know. I can assure you, I definitely don't intend on being single forever. I know there is someone out there," Callie says, smiling. "I just need time." Time to tell her dad, that is.
Seeming to be content with her answer for now, he lets it go. "So, this doctor of hers, she was just consulting on the case and just figured it out? We flew in specialists that couldn't do that."
"Yeah. She worked at Mayo for a while. She did her residency there. She was a pediatrician turned pediatric surgeon. They got ahold of her and asked her to consult on Katie's case. She actually has a practice right across the road from me. She is… an amazing doctor."
"Well, I think it's safe to say we are indebted to her if she gets this little one back on her feet."
"Yeah. She is something." Knowing she needs to change the subject, she says, "So, how is mom? I haven't talked to her in a while?"
"Oh, you know your mother. She is always busy with something. Hey, are you hungry? I'm getting hungry. I can run to the cafeteria and grab us something, then bring it back."
"You can just grab something for you. I'm ok."
"Nonsense. You have to eat something.
"Um, how about just a salad then. Everything else is kind of nasty."
"Thanks for the warning," Carlos chuckles. "Two salads coming up. I'll be right back."
Callie watches as he leaves, then pulls her phone out, sending a text. "Hey sexy. I miss you."
"Hey pretty lady. I miss you too. Everything going ok?" Arizona asks.
"For the most part. He is asking lots of questions and of course, some of those include you. It's hard to talk about you without really talking about you. That make any sense?"
"I think so," Arizona says.
"I mean, I told him about what an amazing doctor you are, but I can't really talk about what an amazing person you are. And you are. You are so amazing."
"I can say the same about you. Where is your dad right now?"
"Grabbing us a salad. What are you doing?"
"I'm sitting in the lounge."
"Why don't you run home for a while? No point in sitting there all afternoon."
"I'm ok. Nothing to do at home either. Would rather stay close."
"You don't have to though. Oh, I gotta go. He's back."
"Ok. Miss you."
Seeing Arizona's last text, she can't help but smile. She puts her phone back in her pocket and smiles at her dad.
After more small talk over their salad, Carlos asks something that surprises Callie.
"Does George know she is starting to improve?"
Looking at her dad in disbelief, she says, "Are you kidding me, dad? George doesn't have any right to know anything."
"He is still her father, Calliope."
"He signed over custody. Physical and legal. He doesn't deserve to know anything dad. He didn't care to see her when she was close, and I sure as hell have no intentions of letting him have anything to do with her now. He lost any right he had to know anything about her. Just, don't even get me started. I can't believe you would even suggest I let know anything."
"Well, I just think he should at least be kept up to date on things. He used to be a good man, you know."
"That later all of about ten seconds. If it weren't for Katie, I would say he was a total mistake. And no, I will not tell him anything."
"Well, that's your call," Carlos says, shrugging. Looking back at Katie, he says, "I just think it's never too late to have a change of heart. Maybe he would come around."
"Not happening, dad. He lost that right."
A little while later, as Callie is more than ready for her dad to leave, he excuses himself to go to the restroom. While he is gone, she is doing what she has done for the past two days, and begins playing with each finger, one at a time. Suddenly, her whole hand flinches. Not once, not twice.
"Hey sweetheart! Mommy is right here. I'm right here with you. I see you moving your hand honey. I see it. Come on, I know you can do it. I know you can."
Callie keeps talking to her and feels Katie move her hand one more time, then the one thing she has waited on for two years happens. As she is watching Katie intently, she sees one eye, flutter open. "Katie! Hey baby! Mommy is right here! Oh my god, Katie… I love you so much. I see you baby, I'm right here!" Too excited to think, she pushes the call light and within seconds, a nurse is coming in.
"How can I help you?" The nurse says, walking in to see what's wrong.
"Page Dr. Robbins! We need her! Hurry!"
"Right away," the nurse says, pulling out her device to do just that. The nurse then makes her way over to see exactly what's going on, and can see one eye, fluttering open.
"Dr. Torres, this is amazing!" The nurse exclaims, handing Callie a tissue as she now has tears streaming down her face.
Callie can do nothing but nod as she continues talking to Katie.
A few seconds later, Arizona comes running in. "What's wrong? What's going on?" Arizona says, rushing over next to Callie and surveying the scene before her.
"Katie! Hey sweet girl…" Arizona says, a big smile breaking out on her face as she sees part of a brown eye peeking out from under an eye lid. She asks the nurse for a few things and the nurse rushes out. "Calliope…"
"I know…," she says, giving Arizona a smile that goes beyond anything Arizona has ever seen before. "Hey Katie, hey sweetie. Look at mommy…"
With Katie's eyes barely open, Arizona anxiously takes the small light from the nurse as she walks back in. "Here you go, Dr. Robbins."
"Thanks…" Arizona takes the light and nudges her way in, in front of Callie. "Hey there Katie. I'm going to use this light and it's probably going to be very, very, bright. But I will make it as quick as possible," Arizona assures her.
Normally she wouldn't shine a light this soon after someone opens their eyes, but she needs to know if Katie has control over her eyes at all. She shines the light and hold her eyelid open a little farther with one hand as she examines her eye with the light. She then puts the light down and moves her finger from side to side, and to her delight, Katie is able to follow for a second or two. "That's amazing Katie. You are doing so good!"
"She followed you!" Callie says excitedly.
"Yes, she did, didn't you Katie?" Arizona says, not taking her eyes off the little brunette.
"Arizona, I can't believe it!"
Not thinking, Arizona reaches over and pulls Callie closer as Callie is just a mess of emotions, laughing and crying all at the same time, all while trying to talk to Katie to keep that one eye fluttered open for as long as possible.
"What happened?" Carlos asks, as he walks in to see Callie, along with Arizona and the nurse standing there.
"Daddy… she opened one of her eyes. And she was following Arizona with it. Um," Callie's smile falters a little, but right now, she is too excited to care too much. "Daddy, this is Dr. Arizona Robbins. She is Katie's doctor. Arizona, this is my dad, Carlos."
Smiling, Arizona goes to shake his hand and realizes that it's the same hand that was just wrapped around Callie. He doesn't say anything, but she knows he noticed because his eyes squinted just a little bit. It was almost unnoticeable, but she saw it. "It's nice to meet you, sir."
"It's nice to meet the doctor that's giving us our little girl back," Carlos says, watching as Katie seems to hear another voice. They can see her eye moving back and forth, as if trying to see where the sound is coming from.
"Daddy, come over here…" Callie says, stepping back just a little to make room for her dad.
He makes his way over and sees Katie's eye flutter a little more. "Hey there, my little Princesa. It's so good to see you waking up. We love you so much." Carlos is thrilled to see his granddaughter making progress.
The three of them continue to talk to her, then Arizona tries to step back, but Callie reaches out and grabs her hand. "Stay, please..." Callie says it quietly, but her dad heard, as he turns to quickly look, before turning back to Katie.
Arizona gives her a questioning look, but Callie only smiles, reassuring her she wants her to stay. Arizona nods, then tries to let go of Callie's hand, only for Callie to tighten her hold. The three of them stand like that for a few minutes, as Callie continues to talk to Katie, but eventually Katie tires out and her eyelid flutters closed.
"Callie, I'm going to go make some notes and look over her chart. I'll be back in to check on her here in just a bit. I'll be out at the desk, so just hit the button if you need me."
"Thank you. I just don't know what else to say..."
"She is doing all the work, Calliope. She is a fighter. I'll be out there," Arizona says, as she makes her way out the door.
As Callie and her dad continue to stand by the bed, Carlos can't help but ask, "So, you and the doctor seem like you know each other pretty well."
"Um, well, we have had a lot of time the past week to get to know one another. She took the week off to spend at Mayo and we ended up spending a lot of time together. We have gotten to be pretty good friends, I guess you say. She has changed things for Katie, so much. I will forever be grateful to her."
"Well, I'm certainly thankful for her. Katie is making great improvements thanks to her."
"You know, I need to thank you, for making it possible to bring Katie back here. For getting the medical equipment taken care of."
"Calliope, you know I would do anything for you two."
"I know. It's just, I appreciate it. I mean, I just opened the practice and I was going to have to let it slide to be there with her, and now, I can do both."
"Are you going to work full-time? I can hire another sitter to come in with her during the day."
"Oh, there's no need. Arizona... Dr. Robbins, is going to be here in the mornings. She said she would be here to make sure her treatments were running smoothly and that she would, you know... come in and check throughout the morning. So, I will work mornings then be here by noon."
"Didn't you say she had a practice across from yours? Doesn't she have her own patients?"
"She does. But Katie is her patient now too, so she is rearranging her schedule a bit because she wants to be here."
"Sounds like that's first-class treatment."
"She is a very dedicated doctor. I mean, she didn't know Katie and still took the whole week off last week."
"You seem to like her a good bit."
"Yeah. She's been great through all this," Callie says, as she schools her face to try not to give anything away.
A little while later, Carlos needs to leave to head home and says his goodbyes. "Call me if anything changes. I'll try to make it back soon."
"I will, daddy."
"Good. Now, you take care of yourself and this little one. I love you both."
"We love you too, daddy."
Carlos gives them both a kiss on the cheek and heads out the door.
"Dr. Robbins," Carlos says, as he sees Arizona sitting at the nurse's station. "I want to thank you. For everything you have done. You are helping my granddaughter and making my daughter extremely happy in the process. Please, let me know if there is anything I can do to help."
"Oh, it's nothing, sir. I'm just glad to see Katie making improvements."
"Well, we appreciate it." With that, Carlos holds his hand out for Arizona to take, which she does. "I haven't seen my daughter this happy in a long time. It sounds like you are a great friend to her. So, thank you."
"It's my pleasure, really." Arizona can't remember the last time she felt this uncomfortable around someone. She is almost holding her breath.
Carlos nods and heads towards the elevator. As soon as he is on and the doors have closed, Arizona make bee line for Katie's room. As soon as Callie sees her come in, she rushes over to the blond and engulfs her in a hug.
"Hey, what's that for? Is she ok?" Arizona asks.
Callie doesn't say anything for a minute,. She just continues to hold Arizona, as Arizona has wrapped both arms around her. "It was just an emotional couple hours. And, I missed you. I'm sorry I made you stay earlier."
"Calliope, you didn't make me stay. I wanted to stay. I just... didn't want to draw more attention to myself than need be."
"As soon as Katie is better, we are telling him. I didn't like pretending we were just friends. At all. You are... so much more than that," Callie says, looking into Arizona's eyes.
"I know... I didn't like it either," Arizona says, shaking her head.
Arizona puts her hands on either side of Callie's face and brings her in for a kiss, with Callie wrapping her arms around her.
XXXXXXX
Deciding his granddaughter needs a teddy bear he sees in the gift shop window on his way out, Carlos makes the purchase and heads back upstairs to give it to her. As he starts to walk in the room, he sees Callie and Arizona, kissing. Shocked, he quietly turns around, heads back out of the room, and hands the teddy bear to a nurse who is standing there. "Can you give this to Katie O'Malley please?"
"Sure thing, sir."
"Thank you," Carlos says, as he once again walks back to the elevator. He is floored by what he just witnessed. He stops, thinking about going back and confronting his daughter and the blonde doctor, but decides against it. He needs time to get his thoughts together.
Walking into Katie's room, the nurse clears her throat to let the women know she is there. "Sorry to interrupt, Dr. Robbins. There was a man out in the hallway. I saw him leave here earlier, but he asked me to give this to Katie," the nurse says, holding out the teddy bear to Arizona.