Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.
A/N : I am so sorry for being absent for so long. Just... my muse has deserted me. I had a bad flu after the last chapter, and then a business trip, and then the news of Jcap leaving the show... I sat in front of my computer and my mind was blank. Anyway, I'll do my best trying to finish this story.
As always, all mistakes are mine and I appreciate your tolerance.
Colonel Daniel Robbins will have everything in control. He is a military man all over - Arizona joked to me two days before our little trip to Mt. Rainier while I was staring at my phone looking for details pondering the routine for our visit.
At first, I thought she was joking, not until I showed up at her house in the morning, being handed over a written schedule by the colonel.
According to the man, we don't have much time to explore the great mountain since it's gonna be just a one day trip, we should first head to Paradise, the south of Mt. Rainier National Park, where is about two and a half hours away from Downtown Seattle. We're going to spend some times at Henry M Jackson Memorial Visitor Center, and then have lunch at the Paradise Inn. We can hit the trails afterward, hiking up to Reflection Lake before we get back in the car toward the cabin where we're going to stay. We'll pass by Narada Falls, Christine Falls and Longmire on the way...
He even has the ETAs written next to the names of the places, in military time.
Other than the stress of arriving in Paradise on time, the drive is fairly pleasant. With me at the wheel, Arizona sitting on the passenger seat and her parents behind us, we laugh and chat, even sing along the radio when certain familiar songs are playing. Thanks to the traffic, we arriving the first destination a little ahead of schedule.
"Oh, what a paradise!" Barbara exclaims more than once when she takes in the view of the glorious meadows and the magnificent mount from afar. With her camera clenching tightly in her hand, she smiles to her husband. "Good thing that you remember to charge the camera last night, Daniel."
"I just hope she has enough space in the memory card." The colonel turns to us saying in a heavily jesting tone, before striding out to catch up with his wife, who has already shot off up the hill.
Arizona and I smile to each other. Simultaneously, our hands reach for the others and follow the older couple.
We are getting good at it. Holding hands, wrapping in each other's arms, sharing pecks, sharing smiles... She doesn't say it, but I know the quarrel between us has her parents worried for a little while. On some levels, we have a secret understanding of overdoing the intimate acts, in hope of convincing her parents that we are okay, and in love.
Walking along the path, having Arizona's hand in mine, I can't shut my mind off. This is almost at the end now. Just the last a day and a half and then things will go back to the way they were before. We are gonna be just best friends. And best friends don't clasp their hands with yours like afraid that you'd slip away. Best friends don't hold you from behind and rests their chin on your shoulder. Best friends don't fall asleep in your arms with the head on your chest...
I rub my thumb across the back of her hand, a subconscious attempt to remember the softness of her skin. She turns to look at me. Her smile is even brighter under the beaming autumn sun.
"I hate to admit it, but I am going to thank Sloan for recommending this place." She takes in a deep breath breathing in the fresh air. "It's really gorgeous in here."
"Oh god, don't tell him that." I chuckle, tugging her hand playfully. "He'd be even more insufferable hear that from you."
"That's true." She wrinkles her nose to a grimace. "I hate his smirk."
"I still don't understand why you hate him that much." I bump against her shoulder as we meander along the landscape of meadows. "If you get to know him better, you'd see that he actually has a good heart."
"Maybe." She purses her lips to a cute little pour. "I just can't stand idiots."
"He really is an idiot." I laugh out whilst wrapping my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to me. "I won't argue with that."
"Why do you love him so much?" With an arm sneaking behind me, her hand resting on my hip, she tilts her head looking up at me.
"I've known him for quite a while. It all started when George cheated on me." I take a deep breath. It has been a long time since I talk about the unfortunate relationship with George O'Malley. "I was crushed. And Mark was there picking me up."
"Picking you up, you meant by sleeping with you?" Her voice was barely a whisper but I'm still able to catch it.
"By keep telling me that one failed relationship doesn't define me. It was George's lost, not mine. And he never gets tired of listening to my pointless dramas over and over again." I couldn't hide my smile thinking of the times that poor Mark had to hear my never ending rambles. "By the way, Mark and I just did it once. And it was a mistake."
"A mistake?" Arizona stops suddenly, pulling back to look at me.
"Yeah. We never had that romantic feeling toward each other. It felt wrong to sleep with him." I shrug my shoulder, resuming my steps as I talk. "I don't want to jeopardize our friendship."
"So... It's not that he dumped you for little Grey..." She puts her hands in her back pockets, following me in a slow pace.
"No." I swirl around, walking backward as I chuckle to her. "Who told you that?"
"Calliope, people in the hospital talks, a lot." With an impish smirk on her face, she cocks her head and says. "In case you don't realize that yet."
I laugh aloud. She is right. The people in the hospital do relish gossips.
"Mark and I are never together, not like that." I fling my arm around her shoulders, pulling her to me once again.
"And you're not waiting for him to come around?" She asks. Her words remind me the drunken conversation that she had with me outside her house a while ago. I wonder if she remembers that conversation, but I give her the same answer nevertheless.
"Nope, I'm not waiting for Mark. We are just friend." I nod my head, looking ahead as our feet carrying us further up the hill. "Actually, he's like a brother that I never had. I know you think that sometimes I over share with him. Just... he's really good at pep talk, you know. It's good to have someone to talk to, get to see things in a different perspective."
"Yeah, I get that." Arizona wraps her arms around my waist, resting her head on my shoulder. "Tim was that person to me."
She doesn't talk about her brother much, but I know how much she loved him, and how much she misses him. I give her shoulder a gentle squeeze, leaning down to kiss the top of her head as we walk in silence.
We halt to a stop seeing Barbara is pointing her camera at us. She looks back the screen with a self-satisfied smile after taking the picture.
"Ain't they adorable?" She shows it to the colonel, and then says to her daughter pointedly. "I still want that photo of the two of you that you put in your bedroom though."
"What photo?" I ask, but Arizona just takes my hand and leads us toward her parents.
"Come on, we're on a tight schedule. Ain't we supposed to have lunch now?" She talks to her father, ignoring my questioning gaze that is directing at her.
After lunch, we are supposed to hike up Stevens Canyon Road from the Paradise Inn toward Reflection Lakes. It's about 1 hour walking distance and then we'll return to Paradise Inn on the same way to get back to the car. Thanks to the advance from the Park Ranger, we decide to drive up to Paradise Valley Road, where is significantly closer to Reflection Lakes, saving us from walking all the way back.
"Are you doing okay, colonel?" I ask Arizona's father 20 minutes after we hit the trail. The reason we shortened the hike because Barbara told us that the colonel's knee is bothering him.
"I'm perfectly fine. Thank you, Callie." He smiles to me, gesturing his wife who is walking a few feet ahead of us, talking animatedly with their daughter. "It's not really that bad. Barbara is overreacted."
"She's just concerned." I smile back and make a suggestion. "Maybe I can take a look the next time you come to town. It's probably just an age related degenerative condition. If so, it can be fixed by a simple meniscal cartilage replacement."
"It would be great. Arizona told me that you're the best orthopedic surgeon in the country." The colonel says. "And she said that you're making cartilages from scratch. That's remarkable."
"Thank you, sir." The praise from him makes me brush. "She told you about that?"
"She wouldn't shut up about you. All we heard was all about how amazing Callie is. Most of the stories she told us over the phone were with you in it." He beams at me with a fatherly genial air. "Barbara and I feel like we've known you already. And we were not surprised when Arizona finally told us that you two are together."
I raise my eyebrows. Before I know how to respond to that, Arizona turns around abruptly.
"Hey, I heard my name." She squints at her father. "Are you talking about me literally behind my back?"
"Honey, I'm just telling Callie how glad I am that I finally got to meet her." The colonel winks at her before passing on. He adds looking between the two of us. "And you're right. She is an amazing person. You've got yourself a good one, finally."
I smirk at Arizona, but she turns around quickly, trying to hide the flush on her cheeks.
"So..." I shot a glance of suspicion at her as we walk side by side. "Your father told me that my name constantly came up in your phone calls with them?"
"You're my best friend, of course I talked about you." She shrugs a shoulder acting nonchalantly, but the blush on her face just goes deeper.
I just smile and clasp her hand with mine without saying anything else. There's a giddy pleasure running through my head knowing that Arizona talked about me to her parents even before we feign this relationship. It might mean nothing, just... I'm not Arizona's only friend in the hospital. I haven't seen Barbara or the colonel asking about Teddy or Bailey in these few weeks.
"Look at that, Daniel." Barbara gasps as soon as the view of Reflection Lakes burst upon us. It's simply spectacular. The beautiful view of Mount Rainier rises above the calm and peaceful lake. The nature wears its best colors under this sunny day. Mount Rainier and evergreen conifers set a perfect background for yellow, red and orange foliage. Vine maple, larches and huckleberries can be seen everywhere... Barbara isn't the only one who is fascinated by this glorious nature.
"Oh my god..." I marvel at the close and full reflection of the mountain in the waters. Arizona and I pause in admiration of the view, while Barbara drags her husband getting closer to the lake with her camera clicking away nonstop.
"Yeah, it's pretty stunning." Arizona moves closer and wraps an arm around my waist. My arm has the mind of its own to reach around her shoulder, holding her closer to my side.
"Thanks for asking me to come with you. This view is..." I look down at the woman in my arm. She is smiling back at me. Her dimples pop, and her eyes are shining under the sunshine. She is just... "...beautiful."
Our eyes lock and my heartbeat quickens as she tilts her head subtly. My gaze shifts from the sparkling blue eyes to the slightly agape pink lips. My head leans down slowly as if I'm drawn to her alluring lips...
"Arizona! Callie! Come over here, let's take a picture together." Barbara chooses this moment to call us over.
We both pull apart simultaneously like we were caught having our hands in a cookie jar. Sharing an awkward smile, we stride toward the mother who is waving her hand at us enthusiastically.
We take turns to hold the camera until the colonel asks one of the passing by hikers to hold it so the four of us can be in the pictures together. Under the request of Barbara, the nice gentleman took an absurd amount of photos for us with the magnificent lake as our background before he continues his track.
"Do you want to walk a bit further along the lake?" Arizona asks her parents as her eyes following the hiker.
"I think we'd take a rest in there, enjoying the view." Barbara points to the bunch of big rocks not so far away from us. It looks like a comfortable place to sit. "But you girls go ahead."
"We can all stay. It's peaceful in here." I offer, and I turn to Arizona saying with concern. "And maybe I can take a look of your father's knee? I've dealt with this kind of pain all the time, a massage could help."
"Callie, I've told you that I'm fine. Barbara just wants to spend some times with me alone." The man winks at us as he jokes, and his wife chimes in with a teasing smile.
"Yeah, I want some quality time with my husband by this romantic view. We don't need the third and forth wheel with us."
"Oh, you're saying you want to get rid of us after we brought you two to here? What? We're useless to you now?" Arizona puffs her cheeks, but her eyes are laughing.
"Don't say it like that, honey. We still need you to take us to the cabin later." Barbara laughs with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
"Can you believe these are my parents?" Arizona rolls her eyes. The uncanny similarity of playfulness between the mother and daughter makes me chuckle.
"I know how busy the two of you were in the last few days, especially with us staying with you." The elfish expression on Barbara's face has replaced by a motherly smile. "We're giving you some free time without your parents tagging along. Thank you would be the appropriate response, Arizona."
"Yeah, you'd say anything to get rid of me." Arizona scrunches her nose to a grimace before taking my hand. "Come on, let's go before they do something that would traumatize their own daughter."
"We'll be back soon." I laugh to the Robbins' as their daughter pulls me away. And the colonel waves his hand urging us to move along.
"Don't worry, we have plenty of time. We're ahead of the schedule." He replies me while putting a hand behind his wife's back, helping her to sit on one of the rocks facing the lake.
"They really love each other very much." I say to Arizona, and she turns to glance at her parents, and a wide smile finds the way to her face.
"They really do."
We walk along the path, enjoying the fresh smell of the nature, and the gentle breeze brushing our faces. Even though the parents might not see us from the distance, either of us has thought about letting go of our joining hands.
"I'm sure it would be even more beautiful in here during spring. The spring flowers are more colorful." Arizona takes a deep breath, looking over to the mountain from afar and then turns her gaze at me. "What do you say that we come back here in a few months?"
"Sure," I give her a heartfelt smile, I'd really like that. However, the voice in the back of my head makes me say more than I should. "But don't you want to come here with a real girlfriend?"
"If only..." She trails off with a shrug of shoulders. Her face turns to the lake that I couldn't really read the expression on her face.
We continue walking in silence. Arizona seems to be moving in a private trance of her own and I couldn't help to raise another question.
"Why don't you want to settle down?"
"Huh?" She blinks up at me with puzzled showing on her face.
"You grown up seeing your parents so in love," I wet my lips before repeating what I just said. "Don't you want to find someone? Being settled down?"
"Who told you that I don't want to settle down?" She tilts her head to the side, trying to suppress her amusement but the mischievous sparkle can be seen in her blue eyes.
"Well... you're a beautiful woman, Arizona." Pursing my lips, I say matter-of-factly. "And you have dated a lot..."
"You think I'm beautiful?" Her lips spread to a wide grin, showing off the dimples she knows that I always adore.
"Anyone has eyes could see that." I roll my eyes upward to her rhetorical question. Of course she is beautiful. And I'm pretty sure that she knows it. "And I believe that there are women lining up for you. You can have anyone you want, but instead, you're here with me."
"How I wish..." Once again, she says haltingly. She directs me a meaningful glance, before looking ahead with a little wry smile on her lips. "How I wish I can have anyone I want."
The flatness of defeat in her voice makes my heart ache for her. And the image of a certain tall, skinny, exotic gorgeous Italian flashes in my head.
"So..." I twist my lips, stealing glances at my side seeing that I've got her attention. "That OB hurt you real bad, huh?"
"Who?" Her head snaps up, staring at me in confusion.
"Carola... Katrina..." Never the one good with names, I struggle to remember the name of the woman that Mark found out. "You know, the woman you were dating, showed up a couple times when you just started to work in here?"
"Carina?" She raises her eyebrows, looking even more confused now. "How do you know about her?"
"Lucy Feilds recognized her." That is true, but that isn't the whole story of how I know about her. Mark overheard some nurses talked about Dr. Robbins's hot, hot girlfriend and one of them said that Lucy Feilds knew her and they talked in the lobby. Mark asked around, even looked up on the internet finding out who this mystery woman was. At the time, he wasn't doing that for me. He was just being the terrible gossip that he is, and well, a dog chasing after beautiful women. "You two were together for a long time?"
"Just a couple months, right when I started to work in Seattle." She sighs, and keeps her eyes looking down on the ground as we walk in a slow pace. "Why do you think that she hurt me?"
"I don't know, just a hunch. I mean, you started going out with random women from the dating app after Carola..." I look at Arizona, and she offers me the correct name. "Carina stopped showing up. It was like that you're trying very hard to forget about her."
"Hold on a second. You keep track of my dates?" She squints at me incredulously, and I don't need a mirror to know that my face is turning beet red.
"Like you said, people in the hospital talk a lot." Despite of my embarrassment, I am quick enough to think of a comeback. Arizona chuckles lightly and then pulls me to the bench by the path.
"Yeah, right." She brushes a strain of hair behind her ear as she sits down.
"So..." I raise my eyebrows, urging for her to talk. "What happened?"
"Carina and I... She was fun to be around with, and the sex was hot." She says jokingly, but I just feel my stomach flip flopping. "But I was never serious about that relationship. I don't know. She has never made my heart skip a beat. She has never made me smile just thinking about her... You are right, growing up seeing my parents, I know what love should look like and feel like."
"You broke up with her?" I shift on the bench, facing her directly with my arm resting on the back of it.
"Actually, she ended things with me. She wanted more from me, but..." She purses her lips, inhaling a deep breath and blowing out slowly. "We talked, she realized, and she made me realized that who I want isn't her."
"That's why you started to look for the one from the sea of women in the dating app?" I ask, and Arizona gives me a playful smirk before letting out a long sigh.
"It sounds really awful, Calliope." She shakes her head slowly. "That was a distraction. I already knew who I want. I just don't think that I could have."
"How so?" I relax back in the bench, scorning to look eager.
"Do you ever have an immediate connection with someone the moment you met?" Mimicking my posture, she crosses her legs, propping up her head with her elbow on the back of the bench, looking into my eyes with a bitter smile on her lips. "You know, a connection so strong that you're drawn to them in a way you have never experienced before?"
"Like finally meeting the other half of your soul." I almost choke in my breath. This, this is how I feel everyday since the first time we talked to each other.
"Like meeting your soulmate." Our eyes lock on like magnets, but she quickly looks away. "That's how my mom described the moment she met my dad."
"So," I keep my eyes on her face. "Are you still searching?"
"I..." Her mouth opens and closes a couple times, and I could see the movement of her throat. Suddenly, her lips turn upward and a mischievous look crosses her face. "You've asked me a lot of questions, Calliope. Since when are you so interested in my love life?"
"What?" The table turns abruptly, all I could do is laughing awkwardly. "I... I don't. I mean... I mean, you're my best friend, I care about you."
"Yeah? Okay, then tell me about yours." she smirks with a small pouting of the lips, a narrowing of the eyes and a tilting of the head. "I didn't even know you were dating Hahn. So, are you dating anyone right now that I don't know?"
"I'm not dating anyone right now." I squirm under her gaze and fidgeting with my fingers nervously.
"I don't believe you." Arizona sucks in her lips, still squinting at me. "You don't want to tell me because we've dated the same person?"
"No, don't be ridiculous." Once again, I laugh awkwardly. "Erica was my one and only girlfriend."
"Erica... she was your first?" Her face washes blank with confusion, like her brain couldn't turn fast enough to take in the information. "Are you one of those fake lesbians just having a vacation in Lesbianland?"
"No! I'm not!" I shake my head fleetly. "I mean... I don't know. It's just... this whole girl thing, it's so confusing."
"What are you talking about?" Seems still a little shock, she gives a hoarse chuckle.
"How do you know when a girl is flirting? I mean, a guy looks at me in a certain way, you know, his eyes wander when he talks, and bang, I just know." Getting a little flustered, words stammer out of my mouth without really processing by my brain. All I remember is how Arizona acts around me. "But with a girl, the touching, the smiling, the biting lips while talking... It's hard to know it's just being friendly or actually, you know, hitting on me."
As if she's helping to prove my points, Arizona listens quietly with the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth.
"You really are a newborn." Finally, she breaks into a chuckle.
"Don't call me that." I smack on her knee, and she just falls in a fit of giggles.
"What do you think of Sadie Harris?" She asks me after her laugher died down.
"The new intern, big Grey's friend?" It takes me a while to put the face to the name. "The psycho with no appendix?"
"Yeah." She nods, studying my face subtly. "And Penny Blake, the third year resident?"
"Harris is a psycho and I think that she's not fit for the job, and Blake... she is a solid resident." I answer honestly. And I don't understand why she's talking about our subordinates all in a sudden. "Why would you ask about them?"
"Because they have constantly flirted with you." One side of her lips tug upward to a half smile. "It seems that they have a better gaydar than I do."
"You're crazy, Arizona. They are not." It's my turn to chuckle.
"Harris looks at you like a starving bear staring at this delicious cooked turkey, with like lines of deliciousness coming off it." Arizona wriggles her fingers right in front of my face, intimating the imaginary stream that she's talking about and I smack her hand away. "And Blake, she takes any chance that she could get to be on your service. And she laughed at your unfunny jokes, Calliope. Every single time."
"She's just interested in Ortho." I roll my eyes at her. "And my jokes are funny."
"No, they are not. And yes, Blake is into you." She picks up my hand and pats it a couple times emphasizing her words. "Seriously, you haven't picked up any vibe? From anyone?"
"I've told you, it's confusing." I make a grimace and try to withdraw my hand from hers, but Arizona tightens her grip.
"Well..." She slides closer to me on the bench, raising her free hand to toy with a lock of my hair. "What if I tell you that I've been flirting with you all along?"
"You do?" My eyes widen and a nervous excitement building in my stomach, until I read the strange twinkle in her eyes. "Very funny, and mean."
"What?" The little smile on her face falls.
"You're making fun of me." I narrow my eyes giving her a pretentious pout, flicking my hair to knock her fingers off of it. "It's not really nice, after I told you all about my... confusion."
"I'm serious, Calliope." She says urgently, but I just wave my hand at her before getting up from the bench.
"Yeah, I know that you're a serious flirt. You flirt with me. You flirt with everyone. I was there the other day when you smiled your way to get the biggest piece of pie from the cafeteria lady, remember?" Not that I can't take a joke, it's just... a little mean after I pour my heart out. I jerk my head toward the direction where we came from. "Come on, we should head back to your parents. Your dad has a specific time for us to arrive in the next destination."
"You think I am joking?" Arizona gets up on her feet reluctantly. The pout on her face tells me that she isn't so pleased that I don't fall for her trick. "What you saw in there? With the cafeteria lady? That was bad flirting. Lazy flirting."
"Yeah?" I looked at her with uplifted eyebrows. And my heart skips a beat when she leads closer to my face with her eyes narrowed, lips pulling up to a seductive smile.
"You haven't seen my A-game yet." She gives me a wink before walking passed me.