Chapter 8: Dash of cream, no sugar
Seville, Southern Spain
After dinner and the briefing, Arizona had given the team the night off. She returned to her apartment and after realising how shattered she was, she had climbed into bed for an early night. However, just as Abu had evaded all attempts to catch him, the blonde struggled to find peace long enough to fall asleep. 11 o'clock turned to 12. 1 am quickly became 2 am...her mind was racing after the events of the past 24 hours. And no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't drop off. Whenever she closed her eyes she would see Tom's face and recall their earlier conversation. Even though she had had the divorce papers prepared months ago, it was still such a strange feeling. Her marriage was over. She was getting a divorce. She just needed to get her head around it before she even considered telling her family.
Arizona finally gave up trying to sleep at 5 am and pulled on her running gear. She messaged Warren and Grey her route as per the protocol when on operations. As she opened the door to leave her apartment she stopped dead in her tracks when she was greeted by a worse for wear looking Callie Torres, who was clearly doing the walk of shame, slipping into the apartment building.
Shit! Callie thought to herself, stopping dead in her tracks as if standing still would cause her to disappear from sight. The way Arizona's judging eyes ran up and down her body made her feel like she got caught skipping class by the headteacher.
Arizona felt an irrational flood of jealousy hit her right between the eyes as she looked at the Latina standing there with her heels in her hand, makeup smudged and her black top hanging off one shoulder displaying a bright pink bra strap. If braids were Arizona's trademark, it seemed hot pink lingerie was Callie's.
"Arizona, I umm…," Callie started to speak, not actually sure what she was going to say but she was interrupted by the blonde.
"I assume you followed protocol and informed Warren and Grey of your whereabouts?" Arizona asked in an official tone. For security reasons, it was vital that the location of all members of the team were known at all times to reduce the risk of abductions or other problems which would put the whole operation in jeopardy.
The taller woman looked straight into Arizona's eyes, quietly challenging her. "I'm not…" she was going to say she was not on the clock, indicating it was none of Arizona's business where she had been. But she did not get to finish her sentence though.
"I thought not," Arizona said firmly. "You have three hours to sleep and sort your shit out, Torres, before you will report to me in the boardroom at 8 am sharp."
Callie opened her mouth to try and argue. She wanted to tell Arizona to calm the fuck down and take a chill pill but closed her mouth deciding it wasn't worth the hassle. Deep down, she knew the drill and Arizona was right to call her out on it, but no harm had been done, well only to the bedframe she had spent the last few hours jumping around on with a hot señorita. And secretly, she kind of liked this bossy side of Arizona. It reminded her of her dream, where the blonde had taken control as well. That dream had been the whole reason why she had been out on the prowl in the first place, she needed to blow off some steam. It was just her luck that she had to run into Arizona like this.
"Understood," Callie responded instead through gritted teeth. The blonde was standing there, hands on hips, wearing a pair of red running shorts and vest top and Callie couldn't stop her eyes from dropping to the blonde's shoulders to catch a glimpse of those cute freckles that most people never saw.
Arizona plugged in one of her Airpods and flashed Callie a smug look. "You ah…" she pointed at her neck and nodded towards the brunette. "You have something…."
Callie felt her cheeks flush as her hand went to her neck. Did she have a hickey there? That would be so embarrassing. Feeling mortified, she furiously wiped at her neck, only to find lipstick on her fingers. Even though it was just lipstick and not a hickey as she feared, she still wished the ground would swallow her up right now. She felt like a little child being told off.
Even though she would never admit it out loud, Arizona was enjoying the mortified look on the FBI agent's face. She could not stop herself from making one more dig, her lips curling into a mischievous smirk. "Nice bed hair by the way!" She said as she plugged in the other Airpod and started making her way down the stairs.
Callie was so shocked by the comments from the blonde that when she opened her mouth to respond with something witty, nothing came out. She eventually called after her, "you didn't seem to mind it six years ago!" But the blonde had gone by then and probably hadn't heard her over the music anyway.
"Fuck!" Callie said to herself as she pictured the playful glint in those blue eyes which still had an effect on her after all these years. Arizona was playing dirty. She was the one who kept calling her on being professional, but Callie could have sworn the blonde was flirting with her. Or was it just wishful thinking? Usually, she could easily read people and knew when she was being flirted with. But she had been wrong about Arizona Robbins before and it had her feeling a little on edge, bordering insecure even. Which was very unlike her.
As Arizona ran along the footpath beside the Guadalquivir river she couldn't get the image of Callie's bright pink bra strap against her olive skin out of her mind. It felt so inappropriate to have these thoughts about Callie. She was her subordinate for crying out loud. And she was in the middle of a divorce. She really needed to get her head straight.
The blonde picked up the pace as she hit an incline and ran as fast as she could, pumping her arms as she powered up the steep hill. Once at the top she doubled over and rested her hands on her knees and took some deep breaths. Once her heart rate was down to a more normal rate, she stood up and looked back down on the streets below. Somewhere in those historical narrow Moorish streets of Seville Abu Ahmed was sleeping. Arizona didn't yet know where, but she had every intention of finding him!
###
Callie entered the apartment she was sharing with Mark and closed her eyes as she leaned back against the door.
"Arghhhhh," Callie groaned out loud to what she thought was an empty room.
"What's up, Tina?" Mark's voice boomed back
"Jesus Christ, Mark! You scared the shit out of me!" Callie yelped as her eyes shot open to be greeted by the agent's head poking around the corner. His trademark smirk appeared on his face as he clocked his partner's clothes from the night before. Mark had left early with Carina and so hadn't seen the brunette leave just after 1 am with the hot redhead who worked behind the bar.
"It's five am, why the hell are you awake?" She asked, shaking her head at her fellow FBI agent as she walked past him and headed to the kitchen to get a much-needed bottle of water. Her mouth felt like the Sahara desert.
"It's Sunday!" He said matter of factly
"So?" Callie replied, unscrewing the cap from the bottle she had pulled from the fridge and taking a huge gulp.
"Sooooo," Mark replied in a slightly hurt tone, "it's meditation day!" Callie rolled her eyes as she remembered that every Sunday Mark would rise with the sun and spend an hour meditating.
The brunette wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and chuckled, "I can't believe you are still doing that shit!"
"Hey! It's not shit…I actually find it really helps...you know focus my thoughts…maybe you should try it, Torres?" Mark suggested to his friend with a knowing look over his shoulder. Callie couldn't deal with zen-mode Mark.
"No thanks!" Callie scoffed, "and don't do the holier than thou crap Mark...you and I both know you only started it because you fancied that woman at the cafe who ran the class in the park…..what was her name….?"
"Harmony," Mark replied with a wide smile and a knowing look. His mind drifted off to the woman he had indeed signed up for classes for, in order to be able to ask her on a date.
Callie chuckled. "Harmony...that's it! How could I forget a name like that?" She smirked before finishing the rest of the water.
"Anyways...it doesn't matter how I got into it, the point is it helps." The agent had argued back.
"Hmm maybe," Callie replied. "Do you know what would help me right now?" Callie asked her friend as she started opening cupboards. "Advil," she added, rubbing her temples as the lack of sleep and the nasty side effects of alcohol started to kick in.
"That bad huh?" Mark asked with a knowing smile as he went over to his rucksack and retrieved a bottle of painkillers and handed them to his partner.
Callie gratefully accepted the tablets and knocked a couple back before grabbing another bottle of water.
"Thanks. If my hangover wasn't bad enough, this morning was made worse by the fact that I just got busted doing the walk of shame by you know who," Callie informed Mark with a pained look.
"Whoops….but hey it's not against the law and you were on fire last night!" Mark said with a look of approval on his face as he remembered the dance show Torres had put on in the bar they had headed to after the dinner and briefing.
"Maybe not," Callie replied, "but I may have forgotten to log my location, and well that is against the protocol. I might as well have broken the law."
"Shit! And Gizmo caught you coming back." Mark said with a level of concern on his face.
"Yeap," Callie said, shaking her head as she pictured the scene of Arizona looking at her disapprovingly. Or had it been a different kind of look? "If it wasn't for Miss Goody Two Shoes doing her morning run at stupid o'clock, I would have been fine. But noooo, she had to be there. I bet the stick up her ass prevented her from sleeping like a normal person."
Mark chuckled. "So much pent-up tension, Torres. Are you sure you don't want to try meditating with me?"
"Not in this lifetime, but thanks." She threw away her now empty water bottle and pursed her lips. "I have to report for a Robbins rollicking in less than three hours...so I'm gonna sleep," she added, pulling a pained expression before heading towards her room.
"Oh, man... I wanted to hear about last night!" Mark complained as he watched Callie enter her bedroom.
"Later dude. We have a 90-minute drive coming up so I'll fill you in then...but now…now I sleep!" she said before closing the door.
"Just use your charm and what god gave you, Torres. She won't be able to resist!" Mark shouted through the closed door.
Callie chuckled to herself as she heard Mark's comment before falling face down onto the bed. Her body was starting to ache after her nocturnal body pump session, and as it hit the soft mattress she let out a loud groan as she pictured those piercing blue eyes judging her. How dare she!
She flipped over onto her back with a loud frustrated sigh she stared up at the rotating blades of the ceiling fan. Who the hell did Arizona Robbins think she was? She probably only got that job because of her dad anyway. That and all his white male privileges and connections from his time in the Marines. Callie huffed again as she moved onto her side and plumped her pillow up, taking a deep breath to try and calm her rising annoyance at the CIA officer. What the fuck had she ever seen in the woman. She was such a daddy's girl, a goodie two shoes, and right now she was also a prize pain in Callie's ass.
The brunette closed her eyes to try and sleep. But when she did, she pictured Arizona's butt in those tiny running shorts as she had made that comment about bed hair and walked away. Callie knew what she had seen in Arizona Robbins...because, annoyingly, she still saw it!
###
A couple of hours later Callie was reporting as ordered in the base apartment to receive her lecture from Arizona.
She had eventually fallen asleep before taking a long shower where she had to purposefully think of other things to stop thoughts of Arizona taking over again. She had thought about Mark's comment about using her 'gifts'. Feeling a bit more refreshed, she had applied body lotion so her skin smelt nice and glistened slightly against the white v neck T-shirt, that she had chosen as it gave a subtle hint of her prize assets.
As she waited for Arizona in the boardroom she found herself feeling slightly nervous. Not about the lecture that was no doubt coming her way, she could handle that, but more the fact that she was going to be alone with Arizona again. No one had hurt Callie like Arizona had and as much as she told herself she was over that, she found her palms becoming a little sweaty as she pictured the blonde.
Callie cleared her throat and rubbed her hands down the side of her jeans as she told herself to focus. There was no way in hell she was going to give Arizona the satisfaction of knowing that her presence was having an effect on her. Trying to seem more casual than she actually felt, she quickly grabbed a bottle of water from the mini-fridge and gathered her thoughts.
Five minutes later Arizona entered the room carrying two cups of coffee.
"Apologies for keeping you waiting, I was just on a call with Washington," Arizona informed the brunette in a businesslike way. "I assume you still take your coffee the same way? Dash of cream, no sugar," she added as she walked over a placed one of the coffee cups in front of Callie, who she had to admit looked surprisingly fresh compared to when she had last seen her.
Callie looked at the coffee cup and was a little thrown by the fact that the blonde had remembered how she had taken her coffee back when they had been together.
"Actually I prefer it black these days," Callie replied in a matter-of-fact way. Truth was, that coffee smelled amazing and she would have taken it anyhow it came right there and then, but she had felt the need to show Arizona that things had changed, even if it was something as small as how she took her coffee.
"Oh right," the blonde had said in a tone that hinted at a level of disappointment which made Callie feel a little bit bad.
"But this is fine," she said, trying to mend fences. She picked up the cup and took a quick swig of the hot liquid. "Thanks."
The two women locked eyes for a moment before Arizona's brain yelled at her to stop going down the road she was on. She was the team leader for crying out loud. She needed to focus.
"Callie...what you did last night...was reckless and put your life in jeopardy, along with the safety of the rest of us."
Callie rolled her eyes, "oh, come on Arizona...that's a bit strong don't you think?" she scoffed as she took another sip of coffee. The caffeine starting to buzz through her bloodstream.
Arizona couldn't believe how casual the brunette was being about this...or, by all accounts, with her choice of sexual partners! They had literally just arrived and she was already hooking up with other women. Her attitude was infuriating to the blonde. Callie may have changed, but Arizona hadn't. There were rules for a reason, and as the one in charge, she was going to make sure those on the operation followed them to the T.
"No Agent Torres...I do not," Arizona said in a firm voice, dropping the informality she had started the meeting with.
Here we go! Callie thought to herself as she watched the blonde react to her words. Arizona clearly hadn't changed one bit. She had been a stickler for the rules back in training and Callie had teased her for being so straight-laced, always doing things properly. Where was the fun in that? Now, nearly seven years later she was still as uptight as ever. They were so different when it came to rules.
"I'm amazed that someone as experienced as you could just forget about the…"
"Rules," Callie interrupted the blonde mid-sentence. "It's always about the rules with you," Callie said bitterly staring at the blonde directly, "always has been."
Callie saw Arizona's jaw tense and knew she was pushing the blonde's buttons, but she couldn't help herself. She had never been one to take being told off without pushing back a little. "Look…we need to follow the rules. I get it. So how about you give me my formal warning, or whatever this is, and then maybe I can get out of here and you know...actually do some work!"
Arizona could not believe how disrespectful Callie was being. She was behaving like a teenager and the blonde had had enough.
"Agent Torres, do I need to remind you about the 107 people these bastards blew up, or the fact that DeLuca is still missing, presumed dead?" Arizona could feel the anger in her tone of voice, but she couldn't understand why Callie was being so casual about it all. "There is a high chance that our presence here could be known, and so yes...we follow the rules….because believe it or not they save lives!"
Arizona stared hard at the brunette who was starting to look a little peaky, as her hangover started kicking in, but she wasn't finished yet. "How dare you sit there and act like you are above the rules. You are not indispensable to this team and I can have you removed like that," Arizona slammed her hand down on the table to hammer home her last word.
Callie jumped at the action of Arizona's firm hand slamming down hard on the smooth wooden surface. The brunette slowly and deliberately ran her eyes down the blonde's body, down that neck that Callie had spent hours kissing, licking, nibbling...down over her firm torso before finally resting on Arizona's petite hand. Callie spotted the faint tan lines on her ring finger, where her wedding band should have been.
Right there and then Callie's emotions were all jumbled up. She resented Arizona, but at the same time wanted to climb over the table and slam her mouth hard onto the blonde's. Swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat, she realised she needed to get the hell out of that room, she needed to get away from Arizona.
"I apologise for breaking protocol last night, Officer Robbins. I can assure you, it won't happen again," Callie replied in a conciliatory tone, which she hoped would do the trick. She wanted to run out of the room before she said or did something she shouldn't. She had hoped her bedroom antics from a few hours ago would have cleared her head, got the sexual frustrations that she had been experiencing out of her body, but clearly, that was not the case.
Arizona's hand was still slightly stinging from earlier, but at least the threat to have the brunette removed from the operation seemed to have done the trick. Taking a deep breath she studied Callie's face to make sure she was being genuine. "I mean it, Callie...I'm not having anyone else die...not on my watch. We are going to catch this bastard and take him home so he can rot in jail where he belongs." Arizona said determinedly.
"Understood," Callie replied quickly as she looked past the blonde's shoulder towards the door, desperate to get out of there. "Are we good? Can I go?" she asked impatiently. She heard Mark's voice in the back of her head 'Use the gifts God gave you', as she spotted those ocean blue pupils start to dilate. Callie had watched that happen many times before and knew she had gotten to Arizona as the red blush started making her way up the blonde's neck.
"You can go, but one more slip up and you are on the first plane back home," Arizona said, clearing her throat as she tried to regain some composure.
Callie stood up from her seat and deliberately ran a hand through her thick hair whilst staring straight at Arizona, challenging the other woman. She had admitted defeat and still, Arizona continued pouncing on her. It frustrated her to no end and made her very angry. "Fine, anything is better than being stuck here with you."
