Arizona's POV
"So you told her?"
"I told her."
"And…?"
I continued working around the kitchen, attending to the boxes that I'd neglected for so long and were now beginning to gather dust. Half of the stuff I don't even remember owning let alone packing, because never in a million years would I have bought an ice cream maker. As I sorted through it all I made piles of what was staying and what was going- the one downside to having people help you pack, you don't know what got thrown out and what didn't.
"Well she didn't leave. She comforted me, and she's the only one apart from you who doesn't look at me like I'm about to break." I told Teddy, who was in the hospital which was apparently having one of their rare quiet days. No one dared say it out loud though because whenever someone said the word 'quiet' out loud, all Hell broke loose- and I was talking from experience.
"I'm just glad that there's someone else who knows, so that you're not keeping it all inside all of the time." Teddy sighed and from the other end of the line I heard the sharp and familiar beeping of a pager going off. "I gotta go. I'll talk later though." She promised and I sighed. Guess there was no reason to hold back in unpacking.
"Page me for something. I'm unpacking and it's literally the most boring thing I've ever done." I complained and I heard her laugh before hanging up. I sighed as I lay the phone back down and glared at the apartment. "Who ever said moving was a good idea?" I mumbled to myself as I proceeded in trying to rip all of the tape off of a box labelled 'cutlery'. For most people, this box would've been one of the first to be unpacked, considering cutlery was needed to eat, but I hardly even ate here. I'd been here for three months and I'd already had my fair share of crappy cafeteria food.
The packing process didn't last long. I soon found myself procrastinating with different things that I found in the boxes and I soon deemed the task as undoable. If my mother were here this would have all been done by now but I'm afraid that wasn't the case.
Just as I was moving boxes into the side of the hallways to clear a way to walk through the apartment without nearly dying, my phone went off with the familiar 'bing' that I had specialised for Callie's number. I smiled as I heard it and immediately dropped the box I was holding; cringing slightly when I heard an unfriendly, dull smash from it.
Hey pretty lady. Just got off work and Teddy said you were 'going crazy'. You up for a visit?- C
I smiled down at my phone, feeling like a lovesick teenager. I typed a quick reply:
Hey beautiful, I sure am, just let yourself in. – A
Calliope had been over a number of times since our dinner at hers, and every time I saw her I just fell more in love. We both agreed that we liked dates where we could talk more and get to know each other- hence we hung around our apartments or in one of our offices most of the time. We'd gotten to the stage in our relationship where we were pretty comfortable, since it'd been about two months since our first date.
Finally giving up on any hope of making a further dent in the unpacking, I focused my attention instead on making lunch. I figured that if Callie had just finished then she wouldn't have had a chance to eat yet and I was starving from the effort of procrastinating. I turned the music up on the TV and let myself relax and dance, not noticing when the door opened and a familiar Latina entered the apartment.
"Nice moves." I heard a voice from behind me say, and I whipped around to see Callie standing against the doorframe wearing an amused expression. I stopped my dancing immediately and set down the knife. "You look like a psycho, by the way. Dancing around with a knife. And very unsafe." She commented, walking over to me and pulling me by the waist into a soft kiss.
"Well you better still love me if I have to be admitted." I said before I realised my mistake. While slapping myself mentally for slipping up and saying such a stupid thing when we'd only been dating for a month, I studied her face closely and saw no sign of a difference in her expression.
"Depends on how you crack." She said, kissing me quickly again before walking over to the kitchen and starting to dance. She moved her hips to the music and sang along gently, making my head go fuzzy and my face bright red.
"Damn you Latinas…" I cursed before joining her. It didn't take long to finish lunch and when we did we decided to head out, maybe just for a walk or something. Callie wrapped her arm around me as we walked through the park, me shivering against the cold winds.
"So, it's Christmas soon…" Callie began and I frowned.
"It's October." I said, laughing.
"It's December soon… ish." She replied and I stopped for a minute.
"Okay..."
"So it's Christmas soon… And I know it's only been two months…. But it'll be four by then…But I'd love to be able to call you my girlfriend for Christmas." She said and I felt a smile break out on my face.
"Just for Christmas?" I asked laughing and she raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, it's kind of a one month thing. You can read about it in the terms and conditions." She replied making me laugh more.
"Well it sounds like a good one month plan. I'm in." I said, before looking up to see my apartment building coming back in to sight In the dull winter light it looked downright boring and empty and it made me sigh.
A month passed quicker than I ever thought it could and before I knew it, it was nearly Christmas. It tended to be a thing that I neglected for a while, but when it got close I was like a five year old. There was just something about Christmas that made me smile, because it was such a peaceful time, where families met up and people made friends. Cheesy, I know, but watching It's a Wonderful Life too many times and working on a peds ward where Christmas meant magic made it hard not to be infected by Christmas Spirit.
I smiled as I walked into the peds ward one morning, laughing as I saw two kids pretending to be snowmen in the hall. I could hear laughter coming from a few of the rooms and there was music playing somewhere. Out of the many surgeons, doctors and nurses in the whole hospital, nobody could deny that the peds ward was the best ward at Christmas. But it was also the toughest. We always wanted to send every kid home for Christmas, or to cure their sicknesses, but sometimes we couldn't do it and it wasn't a great Christmas when it was spent in the hospital.
So, every day I put on my best smile and exaggerated the magic of Christmas. I had a team of multiple staff members who dressed up as Christmas characters and I would really overdo things because that's what made them happy.
"Dr Robbins!" Eleven year old Allyssa exclaimed as I walked in to her room. I smiled to see her with her friend Abigail from down the hall. The two of them had met a few weeks ago and had been inseparable ever since.
"How are we all doing today?" I asked.
"We're doing some Christmas colouring and discussing boyfriends." Allyssa's mother, Elaine informed me as I began a quick check over on Allyssa apart from a chesty cough and her circulation not being as good as I'd hoped she seemed perfectly fine and full of Christmas Spirit.
"Oooh, whose boyfriend?" I asked, takin a seat at the end of Allyssa's bed.
"Mine and he's not my boyfriend. We're just friends." Abigail piped up and that made me laugh.
"Just friends, huh? That's why you blush when you see him." Allyssa commented and Abigail just blushed.
"Oh, well boys are just smelly anyway. I wouldn't waste your time." I recommended as I raised my eyebrows.
"Do you have a boyfriend Dr Robbins?" Abigail asked innocently and I contemplated whether to answer that.
"Yeah, do you?" Allyssa added.
"What did we say about personal questions, girls?" Elaine said and I shook my head to shake it off.
"No, that's a valid question. I don't have a boyfriend, but I have a girlfriend." I answered and I felt myself smile as I said it. Every time that I remembered that Callie was my girlfriend I just got this big smile and I felt fuzzy inside.
"Oh. My sister has a girlfriend. Her name's Sarah." Allyssa said and I nodded.
"Well that's enough talk about boyfriends and girlfriends. Everything looks good here so I'm going to leave." I announced before walking out. Through the day it wasn't very busy, all though there were plenty of ER visits to keep me busy. At this time of year, since it rained non-stop in Seattle, along with Christmas came the unwelcome gift of ice. Plenty of children who played in the snow had slipped and broken bones, or thrown snow that had stones in it.
"Hello beautiful." Callie said to me when we ran in to each other as I was heading out of the ER. She grabbed me my lab coat and kissed me passionately, and we were lost in a bubble until there was a loud throat clearing just inches away, and we both jumped apart, blushing furiously, to see Teddy standing there with her eyebrows raised.
"I swear I'm actually going to have to buy superglue remover one of these days." She sighed exasperatedly, shaking her head and laughing.
"Sorry Teds." I apologised, pulling away from Callie to give her a hug. "So what's up?"
"Well for one, you're going to stop calling me Teds, and two, I need a consult." She said and I turned to Callie.
"I'll see you tonight?"
"Of course." She said, giving me a quick kiss before Teddy and I set off.
"You guys are like a pair of teenagers, you know?" She said as we walked down the hall.
"What can I say? I love her." I smiled before stopping dead in my tracks. "Oh my God, I love her." I repeated, my heart starting to beat faster.
"You love her?" Teddy asked with a wide smile.
"I love her."
"Finally, she realises!" Teddy exclaimed, raising her hands above her head.
"You knew?" I asked with a frown.
"Oh please, everybody knew. You guys were miserable before you met each other. I haven't seen you smile so much in ages."
"I'm going to tell her tonight." I said defiantly before setting off, mentally planning in my head how I would say it.
For the rest of the day all I could think about was Calliope. Now that I'd realised I loved her, I couldn't stop thinking about us. About our future. And I know we'd only been dating for two months, but I just knew. She was my one.
"Arizooonaaa?" I heard Callie's voice call out into my apartment later that night. I practically ran through my elaborately decorated apartment to reach her. Since we decided to spend Christmas at my place, we'd both put all of our decorating efforts into making the apartment look like Christmas throw up.
"Calliope!" I exclaimed excitedly, dancing into her arms and giving her a big kiss.
"Well you're extra cheerful tonight." She said with a smile, setting her stuff down on the table.
"Do you have an objection?"
"Not at all. I brought Chinese." She said, holding up the bag branded 'Lord of the Noodles'.
"You're a lifesaver. I've not had Chinese in ages."
"But we had it last week!"
"That's ages!"
"You're such a goof." She said, kissing me.
"Shut up."
The rest of the night went quickly, and eventually we wound up cuddling on the couch, some really bad Christmas rom-com playing on the TV. I looked up from where I was wrapped under her arm and smiled.
"I love you." I blurted, my heart starting to beat faster. What if she didn't love me back? What if she freaked out and ran?
She looked down at me with a soft expression, and I sat up to face her.
"You do?" She asked softly, taking my hand in hers.
"I do." I nodded, looking her straight in the eye and smiling.
It was silent for a moment, before finally, "I love you too."
"Stay with me tonight?" I asked and she frowned. "Not like that, but just to lay with me. I want to wake up to you I the morning."
"Of course I will." She agreed, kissing my forehead. "Come on." She said, holding her hand out for me. I took it gladly and let her lead me through to the bedroom. We quickly got into our pyjamas, Callie borrowing a pair of mine, not caring about changing in front of each other. It seemed almost natural as we slipped into bed and Callie wrapped her arms around me from behind, placing a kiss on my head, then on my shoulder. I smiled.
"I love you." She said.
"I love you too."