When I first started this story, it was more of a catharsis for things I was facing. I'm sorry I let it go for so long. I hope to wrap it up nicely next chapter. Thank you for sticking with me. :)

The bleating of horns and pitter-patter of heavy raindrops formed some sort of inner-city symphony of traffic disasters. Why she'd decided to drive from Iowa to Seattle, Callie did not know. Perhaps it was her unquenchable thirst for being impulsive on a whim, perhaps she was just impatient.

It was probably the latter.

Callie wasn't someone who could just wait for things to happen. If there was something she could do to expedite something - she did it without question. So, the idea of waiting at an airport smack-dab in the midwest for an eight hour flight while carrying 100 lbs of luggage, was not desirable.

So, she'd loaded up her vehicle at four o'clock in the morning, stopped by the nearest Starbucks, and set out on the 27 hour drive to Seattle. At least if she timed it right, she'd make it to her hotel just in time for continental breakfast - which was a plus in her book.

At first it had been pretty fun. Iowa was boring, as was South Dakota. It's like someone took the same chunk of land and copy+pasted it onto 18 hours of terrain. So, as a means of distraction, Callie had loaded up some podcasts and a few ebooks to play after her playlist was finished. It had almost seemed too easy. The first 18 hours had definitely not flown by per se - but nothing important had happened, minus a lot of signs advertising a quilt museum.

But, as life and Callie's luck would have it, she'd missed an exit while yelling at her radio about politics and ended up in the heart of Boise. Not only was she unprepared on how to drive in the mountains with an automatic transmission, the blaring horns of semi trucks crawling past her was putting her on edge.

So, for everyone's safety (including the ignorant drivers on the road) Callie pulled over at a rest stop and took a few moments to clear her head. She really wanted to call Arizona but her ex-wife didn't think she was coming for a two more weeks. Besides, she needed a few days alone to acclimate to city life again. She'd been in a self-inflicted solitary confinement for so long, she had forgotten how to be a human.

"Talk of the Nation" ended on NPR so she calculated that by this point she'd been driving about twenty hours. Since she'd stopped too often, she would miss breakfast. Damnit. Well, at least she was close to three quarters of the way to Washington.

Her dashboard lit up and the familiar jingle played. Someone was calling. But, after her accident Callie refused to be distracted while driving so, she hit the answer button without looking. Who would be calling at in the wee hours of the morning? Maybe it was a drunk Karev. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Hello?"

"Callie. Hey, sorry for calling so late. Were you sleeping? It's like midnight there." Arizona's sleepy voice flowed from her car speakers.

Callie gulped, did she want to lie?

"Uh, yeah, it's late. Why are you up? Late surgery?" she chided herself on the evasion of truth. But, in her mind it was justifiable. She didn't want to spook or crowd Arizona.

"No, not really. I just..," Arizona trailed off and sighed. Callie waited patiently for her to finish her sentence (something she was trying to be better at). "I was lonely. I know it's dumb. But, Sof's with Zola and I'm alone in this house and my brain isn't being nice to me. Plus I can feel myself getting sick and I hate it."

Callie frowned and turned her car off. She grabbed her phone and got out of the car to stretch her legs. She leaned against the vehicle and tried not to grimace as the damp feeling spread against her denim from the night time dew.

"What's got ya down?"

Arizona exhaled loudly into the speaker.

"I - I have been going to therapy for a few months now and, well, it's really helping. But, I'm having a hard time verbalizing my feelings about everything that's happened to me these last few years. I feel like I remember skating circles in the break room on my first full day and then there's a huge blur of tragedy, loss, and heartbreak. Suddenly, I'm alone in a house with one leg, a daughter, a failed marriage, and a slew of unhealthy coping mechanisms following me everywhere I go." Her breath hitched as she spoke. "Plus a kid sneezed on me today, so I already know I'm gonna go down hard."

Callie's heart pounded in her ears; she knew that this conversation was long overdue. But, she'd hoped that it would happen much, much later. Preferably after some naked time while their brain chemicals were soaring. But, this seemed like an appropriate time. Why the hell not?

"I'm sorry. I know that it's much larger than it a simple apology will do." She tried to conjure the conversation she'd been practicing in the mirror for ages. "But, I've had time to think, really think about my behaviors and how much I truly did not help you in the ways that I should." Callie's hands started to shake, so she opened her back door and slid inside to lay down. She put her phone on speakerphone and continued her apology.

"Arizona, I..I wasn't the support that you needed. I let my fear of your death manifest into anger instead of gratitude. I was too busy being upset that you had left me, than realizing that you were traumatized. I forced you to want to get better, when in fact I should have worked with you. I'm not saying you were an angel, but I was less than helpful. I forgot that you were my wife, and treated you like a patient. For that, I apologize."

She heard the muffled sounds of Arizona quietly crying and eventually let the tears roll down her face. This was it. They were talking like the adults they should have been all along. The cool leather of her seats made goosebumps rise on her skin, and for just a second she wished that she was back in her cabin.

"I love you." Arizona's watery admission eventually broke the silence. "I love you so much Calliope. I can't remember the last time I fought so hard, so goddamned hard, for something to work. I'm stubborn. I don't let people win against me. I'm resilient. So, when I couldn't fight back or tell life 'no', I lost it. I can't lose control - you know that. So, to have so much taken from me at once it…"

She trailed off and sucked in a breath. "It nearly killed me."

Callie took advantage of the silence to bring up a different point.

"I forgive you."

"For what? Losing a limb?"

"For Lauren."

Arizona gasped and Callie knew that she had been caught off guard.

"I understand it. I'm still very hurt by it, and I probably will be for a long time. But, I've come to understand that it actually had very little to do with me."

"I don't really have the words for it right now, Calliope. But, all I can tell you is that it was a terrible decision. I was backed into a corner and lashed out in the way I knew would hurt you as badly as possible. I'm not a cheater - I never have been. Yes, I've been a player of sorts. But, I take vows and loyalty very seriously. You know what I say about good men in storms. In my mind, you had already left the marriage. I was hurt. But I wasn't mad at you, Callie. I was mad at myself. I knew that my piss-poor attitude towards your desperate attempts to help me was just too much. I wanted to wallow in self pity so I hurt you, hoping you would leave. So, when you did I let myself feel even sorrier for myself. I was comfortable being miserable."

By this time Arizona was openly sobbing on the phone. Callie had scooted back into the front seat and started her car. She could feel herself starting to panic, so she tried to even her breathing before she tried to answer her.

"Arizona, it's okay," Callie started as she pulled out of the rest stop. "Well, it wasn't okay, but it is now. I see it for what it was. I will admit, I had fantasized about leaving you multiple times. I even thought about the people I'd like to pursue once I was single. But, it was never because I was attracted to them, or wanted to make a life with them. No, I picked them because I knew if you'd found out, you would have been hurt. You just actually took the plunge. We both fucked up. But, we forgot that once we had a child, our priorities should have shifted."

"We lost sight of the fact that Sofia got caught up in our problems and I hope and pray every night that she won't be affected by it. Kids are tough, I see it every day. But, it's hard to come back from that. We need to make this better." Arizona sounded adamant about her declaration.

"We really do. Sofia doesn't deserve that - no child should feel abandoned. I will make this better. Hey, it's late. Why don't you take a precautionary sick day and if Bailey says anything about it, have her call me. I won't let her bully you into working when you obviously shouldn't be. When is Sofia back?"

"She's with Meredith all weekend, I planned ahead. They've learned to trust me when I say I'll be sick."

"Good thinking babe, I'll call you later okay?"

"Okay. I'm glad we talked Callie. I really am. I know we have so much more to work through. But I want to let you know that I'm ready to do whatever it takes, calmly, to get us back into the swing of things.

"I love you too. I'm in this for the long haul, Arizona."

She hummed a sleepy goodbye and ended the phone call. Callie took a few moments to process what had just happened. They'd started to heal, and it felt damned good.

As she coasted along the road, she counted the hours until she'd make it back to Seattle. Screw breakfast, all she wanted was to hold Arizona again and bury her face in her hair and cry out the last few years of heartbreak onto someone who understood her pain. Maybe she'd move into the guest room. The future could play out so many ways.

But at least there was a future, and it looked promising.