The First Time Ever chapter four
TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT. DO NOT READ IF YOU MIGHT BE TRIGGERED.
Callie's POV
"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" Addison begged as we walked along the usually busy halls of Seattle Grace Mercy West. All day long Addison had been prying me for details about my date with Arizona, but all my explanations were nowhere near how it actually was. It was absolutely perfect.
"It was amazing, Addison." I repeated for what seemed like the millionth time today. But Addison of course wanted more than that.
"That hardly counts as details. You sound like a love-struck teenager." She complained as we approached the nurse's station. The hospital was swamped today- the winter that was slowly creeping in was bringing with it the usual winds and rain and ice, which made for many road accidents and people with broken bones.
"I feel like a love-struck teenager. It was magical." I sighed and Addison just stood there staring at me like I'd just grown an extra head. "What?"
"That was literally the most un-Callie Torres thing anybody could say." She said blankly just as her pager went off. She checked it quickly before turning to me. "And if you'll excuse me, I have to go vomit."
I smiled as I watched her go, shaking my head at her usual sarcastic attitude. It was then that I saw a familiar face approaching me, one that I was more than happy to see. I smiled really wide as Arizona came gliding over, literally, coming to a neat stop right beside me.
"Calliope!" She chirped and her voice was literally like music to my ears. Okay, cheesy. But true.
"Arizona!" I exclaimed back in the exact same tone, laying aside my charts and giving her my full attention.
We hadn't seen each other an awful lot since the date, which was about a week ago. Apart from one sweet stolen kiss in the stairwell as we passed, we'd only had fleeting conversations, since we'd both been so busy. We'd talked plenty over text though, and I was thrilled to be getting to know her. I could definitely see us going somewhere already.
"I've had a great day. Saved three tiny humans and scheduled a transplant that we've been waiting on for ages. But I don't want to jinx it." She revealed with a smile. "You free for lunch?"
I checked the clock to see that I had about half an hour left until I needed to start heading to my next surgery, so I happily agreed and we walked down to the cafeteria, the conversation flowing freely between us.
"I'm surprised I've never gotten food poisoning from this stuff." Arizona said as she made a face at the mess of what appeared to pasta on her plate. Having learned from previous experiences I normally just stuck with a salad and a bag of chips from the vending machine and had a proper meal when I had time at home.
"I have. Never eat any form of meat that they give you. Ever." I warned importantly and she laughed.
"You talking from experience?" She laughed and I made a face at her, feeling very much like a five-year-old. Just then, Cristina walked up to us and addressed me.
"I'm going to Owen's tonight, so I won't be home. I'll be here all day, even though nobody's letting me scrub in and Teddy's mad at me." She said sourly.
"I have a knee replacement in twenty. Scrub in if you want." I offered and she just shrugged and stalked off. I shrugged my shoulders once again and turned back to Arizona, figuring I'd see Cristina in the OR.
"Well, she has an attitude like a pack full of skittles, doesn't she?" Arizona said, raising her eyebrows as she watched Cristina go. I laughed at her comment.
"'An attitude like a pack full of skittles'?" I questioned and she shrugged.
"Just something a patient of mine says." She said. "So, do you ever actually get proper meals here?"
"Not unless I make them. Not to brag, but I'm an excellent cook."
"Oh really?"
"Totally. I make kickass chicken picatta."
"I don't believe you."
I laughed at her shaking my head. "Come over tonight, 7pm. I'll prove it to you."
I sighed as I sprayed the counters with a damp cloth for the millionth time tonight. Arizona had texted me mere minutes ago to say that she was going to be about ten minutes late as she had a last-minute patient come in, and I totally understood. One time I'd completely missed a date and forgot to text the person to apologise, so her being ten minutes late wasn't exactly something I could hold against her.
The whole apartment smelled amazing, if I do say so myself. Chicken Picatta was one of my favourite dishes that my mom ever taught me how to make, but I hadn't cooked it in a long time. I smiled as I remembered standing on a stool beside my mother at the oven, incessantly asking questions about this, that and the next thing. I would watch every move she made carefully, but through my entire adult life I'd never been able to make it exactly like she did.
I jumped slightly as there was a soft knock at the door, pulling me out of my thoughts. I quickly wiped my hands on the dishcloth and discarded my apron before walking over to the door. I took a deep breath before pulling it open slowly.
She looked stunning. She wore white jeans with purple halter top and purple heels. Her hair had been straightened and it hung to her shoulders like this, and her top showed off just the right about of cleavage to not be too much. I stood there in awe for a few seconds before she cleared her throat, making me blush bright red. I could feel my face heat up.
"Hello, Calliope. You look beautiful." She said warmly and I glanced down at my own outfit. Black skinny jeans, black heels, and a white long sleeved top that flared out at the bottom a bit.
"Don't hold a candle to you." I replied, drawing her in for a quick, soft kiss. "Make yourself at home." I told her, gesturing to the whole apartment. I gently took her coat off her shoulders and hung it up on the rack before going back over to the kitchen and beginning to serve.
"I'm so sorry for being late, but I can't just turn tiny humans down and..." She rambled but I cut her off.
"You're actually right on time." I said, indicating to the food that I was putting on the plates.
"It smells amazing in here." She complimented, leaning against the counter and lifting an eyebrow at me. "I'm afraid I might lose the bet."
"If there was a bet even placed in the first place." Finishing off what I was doing and bringing the plates over to the table. "Red or white?" I asked, indicating to the two wine bottles stood next to each other on the table.
"Hmm… White, please." She decided, taking a seat at the table and accepting the glass when I handed her it. She took a sip and closing her eyes and sighed. "I've needed this. Work has been so crazy. Not all the parents trust me because I'm so new, and it takes ages to adjust, I mean, I moved across the country, and it's always tough working with kids." She rambled. "I'm sorry, that was a lot."
I silenced her with a wave of my hand. "Don't worry about it, I get it."
There was a comfortable silence for a few minutes as we ate. "This is so good." Arizona practically moaned which suddenly made it very hard for me to concentrate on anything.
"I'm glad you like it." I smiled happily, and I kind of agreed with her.
We finished our dinner with quiet conversation that broached many different topics, and once it was finished we moved over to the couch and continued talking animatedly.
"And I swear she just drove me nuts half of the time. I'm much more like my dad, but he isn't a big talker. I love my mom, but she sometimes talks too much." She laughed as she completed her story of what her parents were like.
"My dad is great. Always looking out for me. One time he hired private investigators to get rid of some bullies. I haven't come out to either of them yet- I was raised strictly catholic. I'm sure they'd freak out. But my mom taught me how to make this chicken picatta."
"Well she can't be that bad then." She said jokingly making us both laugh again. I swear I hadn't laughed as much in a long time as I did that night. Arizona had a quick mind and a wicked sense of humour which was really amusing at some points.
"So I have a confession to make." Arizona said guiltily as I refilled both of our glasses.
"Oh yeah?"
"I researched Erica Hahn and I completely agree with everybody's consensus that she is a complete and utter bitch." She said quickly, making my smile falter but quickly come back when she started to ramble yet again. "I was just curious to see who this bitch was and I figured you wouldn't want to talk about it so I just-"
"It's fine, don't worry." I assured her, surprising myself. I always thought that when the subject of Erica came up that I'd be upset, or really pissed off or something, but I guess not. I had moved on. I had Arizona now.
"She's a bitch for ditching you." She commented. "I get it, you know, my last girlfriend ditched me too. Emma."
"Oh yeah why?" I asked. I'm pretty sure that she knew all of the details about George and Erica, whether through hospital gossip or through Mark I wasn't sure. But she probably knew and I didn't really want to go into details.
She bit her lip nervously and cast a furtive glance around the room. "That's a long story that is probably going to ruin the happy mood and make me really emotional. So, I can refrain from telling you or I can just spit it out." She said, and it was safe to say that I was rather taken aback. That wasn't what I expected.
"No, go on. If you want to. You don't have to. But I'm okay with it if you to." I rambled causing her to smirk slightly, before taking a deep breath and muttering 'here goes' under her breath.
"So, about two years ago, I started getting these texts. The first one was 'I know who you are.' It sounded creepy, but I just brushed it off as a wrong number. I text them letting them know but they never got back to me. I pretty much just forgot about it, until they messaged me again. It was always the same weird and creepy stuff, like 'You have no idea where or who I am' or 'If you want horror, look in the mirror'. Eventually I blocked the number, but then a new number started texting me the same things. So, I switched my phone. And then this person started targeting me through social media, but he had the name 'Nobody Nobody', which was silly and infuriating.
"And I kept blocking him, but he'd always come back through different accounts and I just didn't know what to do. He never gave any information about himself away, just death threats and insults. I made new accounts and everything, but somehow he always found me." She stated in horror, her eyes brimming with tears that threatened to spill over.
"It went on for a few months. I was scared to tell anyone, because he would threaten me. I would jump at the silliest things and my heart would race whenever my phone went off. It was like living in prison. And then came November 19th." She continued, taking a deep breath. I adjusted my position to put my arms around her, taking her hand in amine and squeezing it in reassurance.
"I was walking home from the hospital; I've never lived far from where I work. It's useful so I can get there quickly without an absolute trek.
"Anyway, there were footsteps behind me and they didn't match mine, and I turned round to see this guy walking behind me. I couldn't see his face because it was so dark and he has his hood up and it crept me out, so naturally I walked faster. And so did he. So I began to run slightly and so did he. I started to full out run, and so did he."
I swallowed, catching a glimpse in my mind as where this could be going. I looked over to Arizona and she had her eyes screwed shut, as though having a nightmare.
"He caught up to me. It didn't take him long. The first thing that came to my head was to kick him in the balls so I did. It just made him angrier and didn't really work. He grabbed my hair and shoved me into the wall. He put his face right up to mine and said 'It's nice to see you face to face.' And I just knew it was him." Her voice was shaking now, and she had brought her knees up to her chest and was hugging herself as if to keep herself together.
"He just kept hitting me. He broke my jaw. And then he moved to my pants, unbuttoning them. I remember him threatening to break my wrist if I didn't act like I liked it. I screamed. He stamped on my wrist and broke it." She was positively sobbing now, shaking in my arms. "And then there were voices. Lights. And people. I heard the sound of a car door slamming and I could barely make out the noise of people shouting- it was all so blurry, and disjointed, this might not even be what happened.
"The next thing I remember was being in an ambulance, and everybody was trying to wake me up. I remember being in so much pain. I broke my ankle, my jaw and my wrist. I'd hit my head so hard of the ground that it turned out I had a brain bleed. And they had to operate on my abdomen because of the internal bleeding where he'd kicked me so hard, the bastard."
And that was as much as she was saying then. She broke down in tears in my arms and I was shocked at how quickly this had all come about.
"So, did they catch the guy, or…?" I asked apprehensively. The thought of this person alone sent cold fear and rage coursing through my body, each emotion battling against each other.
"They did. The people who showed up beat the crap out of him and didn't get charged. We went to court and he got jailed for fifteen years because attempted rape was just as bad as rape in the judge's eye."
"So, Emma was my girlfriend at the time it happened. And she was amazing with me, but I think after two years she was getting annoyed when I couldn't even have sex. She ended up yelling at me that he didn't even rape me, and that is was only a bunch of stupid texts, and that I had no right to be this upset by it. And she left. Just like that."
"Wow, what a bitch." I said blankly earning a slight chuckle from Arizona.
"It made me feel horrible and hate myself for being so affected by it. I got lucky, if that car hadn't come when it did then I don't even what to think…" She trailed off, shaking her head as if to wipe it from her brain. "But I always understood rape as a sexual thing, and it is, but it isn't. It's complete and utter control. In that moment, no matter how hard I fought or how loud I screamed, he had complete control- I was powerless and that thought haunts me every day."
"If those people hadn't shown up…" I trailed off, my own voice thick with tears.
"I really like you, Calliope. And I'm just going to be blunt and say that I know that we're going somewhere. But you must be patient. I can't even think about doing… stuff and I get very emotional very occasionally. So, you need to understand that. I get jumpy when there are loud noises and I can barely look at my texts anymore. And I have nightmares. If it's not about that, it's about tiny coffins with tiny humans that I didn't' save. I have a lot of baggage."
"Before you came I'd set myself up to believe that I was never going to date again. Never have a life, never stop being gossiped about. But then you came along and it was all wiped from my head. My own mother practically disowned me and I get worked up about that a lot- and I speak Spanish when I get angry, which is quite easily nowadays. So yeah, I come with a lot of baggage too." I told her, wiping the tears from her face and taking her further into my arms, squeezing her tightly, never ready to let her go.
"We're pretty messed up, huh?"
"Yeah. But we're messed up together."
Hey guys, so you might be confused with this. I could have made it that Arizona did get raped, but that's not the point that I wanted to make. I wanted to get my understanding of rape forward and here it is. This storyline just popped up in my head and it wasn't budging.