Chapter 2: Arizona
Arizona Robbins climbed into the shower cubicle, placed her forehead against the cool glass, closed her eyes, and let the water wash over her. Yesterday had been one of those days! You know the type…the days when you stab your fingernail through your pantyhose, spill coffee down your blouse at work, have a blazing fight with your husband. One of those days!
Today hadn't gotten off to a great start either. She had slept in the spare room following the argument with Tom. One of the springs in the mattress was busted and so she now had an achy back as well as a bad tension headache. She let out a small groan of pleasure as the hot water hit her achy muscles. It was going to be a long day.
She was surprised but also slightly relieved to see that Tom had already left for work by the time she made it downstairs. There was a hastily scribbled note on the fridge advising Arizona not to wait up as it was the boys' bowling night. Arizona screwed the note up and threw it towards the bin, punching the air in celebration as she shot went in. Still got it she thought to herself. She might be small, but she had a mean eye for the basket.
"You've gotta be frigging kidding me!" Arizona moaned out loud to herself as she spotted that Tom had drank the pot of coffee that she set to be brewed for the morning, and in typical Tom style, had not had the decency to make a new one. Checking the clock she sighed, realising there was no time to make a new pot, and she was going to have to survive the day on the poor excuse of coffee from the canteen at work as she grabbed her things and headed for her car to make the short journey to work.
Once on the freeway, she dialed Tom's number but her call went straight to voicemail. Coward she thought to herself.
"Really Tom, you've outdone yourself this time," Arizona ragged down her phone. "First you come home steaming drunk again, waking up the whole street crashing into the bins and then you drink all the damn coffee. You really are a selfish prick sometimes! You're sleeping in the spare room tonight and don't you dare come home drunk again!" Arizona ended the call. This would be the third night in a row her husband had been out. She wasn't sure how much longer this could go on. She took a deep breath as she tried to control her emotions and made a mental note to try and get along to her yoga class at some point as her chakras were all over the place!
As she pulled off the Dolley Madison Blvd, heading towards her office at the George Bush Centre for Intelligence she felt that familiar wave of pride hit her. Arizona was a Senior Operations Officer for the Central Intelligence Agency based at Langley and she absolutely loved her job.
"Hey, Mike!" She said, greeting the officer at the security gate as her window slid down and she handed over her ID.
"Morning Ma'am. I saw your husband beat you into work today." The guard said, smiling as he handed back her ID card.
"First time for everything Mike!" Arizona smiled in response to the comment as she waited for the gate to rise so she could drive through. "You have a good day," she added with a wave as she drove through, heading for her designated parking spot
Tom and Arizona had met at training college and whilst nothing had happened at the time, Arizona had known Tom had fancied her and so they had hooked up shortly after graduating from the program. Arizona had eventually given in to Tom's persistence and gone on a date with the young Intelligence Officer, much to her parents' delight. They had started to worry that Arizona was going to end up all alone, and so had been delighted when their only daughter had announced she was engaged after a whirlwind romance.
Arizona's dad Colonel Daniel Robbins of the US marine corps had been a proud father when his daughter had accepted the CIA job offer. The blonde had been approached by the FBI to join their team, but the retired chief had hated the thought of his daughter running around town in a blacked-out sedan like all the other Feds. The Central Intelligence Agency was a much more regarded organisation and one Daniel had many good friends in high ranks there.
A few hours later and Arizona was focusing on an intelligence report when her secretary April Kepner popped her head around the office door
"Sorry to disturb you, boss, but I've Director Webber on the line. He says it's urgent!" April said with a serious look on her face.
Arizona looked up at the young redhead at the mention of the Director's name. "Patch him through April," she replied as she switched on her speakerphone so she could take down notes of the call.
"Director Webber, how can I help?" Arizona asked in what she hoped was a calm voice even though her heart rate had increased tenfold. Richard Webber was the Director of Intelligence and reported directly to the Director of the CIA. When Richard called it was usually something big.
"Officer Robbins. I'm here with Director Bailey," Richard explained down the phone.
"Hello, Arizona."
The blonde smiled to herself as she heard the familiar voice of Director Miranda Bailey, Head of Terrorism at the CIA and Arizona's direct line manager through the speakerphone. Director Bailey had initially been skeptical about the blonde when she had joined the CIA, but over their years of working together Arizona had proven herself time and time again and if ever there was a need for that ability, it was now.
"Good morning Ma'am," Arizona replied, realising it was now something super big.
Richard picked things up again. "Arizona we're sending over some files to you now, but we've had a development in relation to the Westfield Mall bombing suspect."
"Abu Ahmed?" Arizona said seeking confirmation she had the right name.
"That's correct," Richard responded. "I'll hand over to Bailey to explain more"
"As of 17 hundred hours on the 18th March the suspect Abu Ahmed was spotted in Seville, Spain by a local Interpol agent on the ground. We know that ISIS has cells in southern Spain. Unfortunately, since confirming the sighting we have been unable to reconnect with the agent, and we suspect his cover may have been blown, making him vulnerable"
"OK, do we still have eyes on the suspect?" Arizona asked as she scribbled down notes in her trusted black book.
"We do, but we're not confident for how much longer, so we need to act fast," Miranda explained to her most trusted Operations Officer.
"Robbins, you'll be aware of President Yang's personal loss of her niece in the bombing in her hometown. Those were her people, so this matters a lot, which is why she's authorised an Interagency task force involving the FBI and obviously Interpol. We want you to take point," Director Webber informed the blonde who stopped writing at that instruction.
"Absolutely, Sir. I'd be honoured to run the operation." Arizona replied, her excitement hitting boiling point by now. This was going to be the biggest task of her career.
"We were hoping you'd say that. Listen we really do have to move fast on this one Arizona,'' Bailey said. "My counterpart at the FBI, Director Derek Shepherd is briefing his team as we speak. They'll be with you within the hour. Sorry to land this on you this way, but we need to move quickly on this. If we lose him, who knows how long it could be before he resurfaces again."
"Understood. I'll read the files and bring myself up to speed before the Fed agents arrive".
"Shit! Shit! shit!" Arizona muttered to herself as the call ended as she mentally ran through the scale of the operation. She was used to running big operations, but this would be her first interagency op and with the added pressure of the President's niece being killed in the attack. This was the first lead they had had in nearly a year and they couldn't mess it up..
Arizona picked up her phone and texted Tom.
Something big has come up at work. Can you skip bowling? Need to talk. A x
"AAAAP.." Arizona started to yell but smiled when she saw her ever-reliable secretary's head already poking around the doorframe.
"What do you need?" April asked, pen and pad ready to capture her boss's instructions.
"Get me Officers Grey and Warren, please. I don't care what they are up to I want them here within an hour." Arizona needed her Technical Analysis team to pull everything there was on the suspect.
"Yes Ma'am," April said before rushing back to her desk to call the IT officers. April steadied herself, ready for the backlash she was undoubtedly going to get from Agent Lexie Grey for calling her on her day off.
Arizona rubbed her temples as she scanned the intelligence report from Interpol. "Oh, and April?" The blonde yelled out again.
"Yes Ma'am?" April said as she came whizzing on her office chair to the office door to see what else her boss needed.
"Do we have any Advil? My head is pounding."
Arizona popped a couple of painkillers that Kepner had given her and took a swig of water as she waited for her husband's response. The blonde didn't have to wait long before Tom replied.
When isn't it big, Arizona? I'm going bowling and will be home when I get home.
Arizona read Tom's response and took a deep sigh. So much for all that therapy they had paid for. Tom and Arizona had been married for just over five years and had spent the past eighteen months mainly fighting. It hadn't always been this way, but like many couples, they had drifted apart and they just couldn't get past some of the differences they had. Tom had never been a big talker and neither was Arizona, so small issues had a habit of becoming big when they would both spend days stewing over things. Their counselor had tried to get them to be more open and to listen to each other, to actually hear what the other person was saying, not just what they thought they were saying. But as the blonde reread her husband's response, she realised that they were broken beyond repair.
Arizona didn't have time for his moody shit right now, this would have to wait until later. She had to prepare for the briefing she would soon be giving to her new joint team. Whilst she understood President Yang's interest in this case, given her own personal loss at the hands of the suspected terrorist, she really didn't see the benefit of having the Bureau involved. Arizona's experience of dealing with them in the past had been less than favourable, and now she was going to have to manage two of them in her team.
At that moment in time, Arizona couldn't have known just how bad her headache was about to get with the arrival of the FBI agents that were being allocated to her team.
