The First Time Ever chapter twelve

Hi guys! Just to clear up some timeline stuff… The story's around early April right now, and they started dating in September. That means they've been dating for about seven months. I just had to clear that up, because I realised I wasn't even sure what month it was in lol. Anyway, enjoy!

ARIZONA'S POV

The peds ward had been especially busy over the last few days. I had been performing back to back surgeries on tiny humans with extremely worried parents who had what seemed to be a never ending list of questions.

Due to my extremely busy schedule I had hardly been able to see Callie all week, despite the fact that we now shared an apartment. All of my time had been spent at the hospital and I missed her terribly. In contrast to mine, her department had been relatively calm, which meant I saw her even less because she wasn't at the hospital as much as I was. We made an effort to have lunch together every day, but more often than not it was cut short by my pager.

"Hey, Bree!" I said cheerily as I proceeded with my nightly check of patients. This was like rounds, but it was something I did myself. I didn't have to do it, but I liked to check on my patients every so often, and at this time of night most of them were going through the routine of getting ready for bed. All of them that is, except fifteen year old Bree Mitchell, who was engrossed in what I could only assume was the newest episode of Pretty Little Liars. She was utterly obsessed with the Netflix series.

"Hi, Dr Robbins." She greeted me, removing her headphones and closing her laptop. Her mother, Audrey, was sitting on the couch in the corner of the room and stood up to greet me.

"Hey, Arizona." She said. Patient's parents tended to call me by my first name as per my insistence. From past experience it made parents trust me more when they we were on first name basis. "You look exhausted." She commented.

"Yeah." I sighed, checking my watch. "This is hour… thirty two of my shift."

Both of their eyes widened. "I could never be a doctor." Bree commented. "I like to sleep."

"Speaking of." Her mother told her. "It's ten pm."

"Only." Bree sighed.

I laughed at their antics, admiring their mother daughter relationship. "I just came here to see how you were doing. Check your vitals and such. I'll be quick." I promised, proceeded to update her charts after checking her vitals. I added a few comments to the manual chart that hung from the bottom of her bed.

"Another reason I could never be a surgeon." Bree told me. "That looks so complicated."

"It's okay once you know what you're doing." I told her, finishing my work and bidding them goodbye before exiting the room. It was now ten pm and I still couldn't leave, so I decided with a sigh to locate the nearest on call room.

Once I reached one I slumped down on the bed and whipped out my phone and smiled when I saw a new text message from Callie.

It's nine thirty pm so I guess you'll be staying at the hospital? Make sure you get some sleep and I'll bring breakfast if you're still not out in the morning. I miss you. I love you. C xx

I smiled at her sweetness. Sometimes I forgot how lucky I was to have her. She always looked out for me in small ways like this and I forgot how much I appreciated her sometimes.

Breakfast sounds great. I'm sorry I haven't been home as much recently. I miss you. I love you too.- A xx

A few hours later I woke up in a cold sweat, shaking from head to toe. A mixture of adrenaline and fear coursed through my veins, paralysing me. A nightmare had invaded my dreams for the first time in over a month. This time Callie had been there, she had been the victim of the man who had ruined my life for a year. I let out a sob, as I lay there, frozen, too afraid to move.

"Arizona? What's wrong? Can you hear me?" A gentle voice was saying but I could barely I covered my face with my hands and tried to stop crying but I couldn't.

"Arizona? Are you okay?" The voice persisted. I opened my eyes and turned my head to the right, where the worried face of Meredith Grey stared back at me. I immediately bolted upright, cursing myself for letting my guard down in front of someone that wasn't Callie. I refused to look at her, unsure of whether to explain to her or not. I ran my still shaking my hands through my hair and took multiple calming breaths.

"I-I'm okay. I'm good." I said once I finally found my voice.

"Are you sure?" She asked, placing a soothing hand on my shoulder. I involuntarily flinched away and she looked at me in concern. I didn't know her too well. We had worked together multiple times as co-workers, and I had spent thanksgiving at her house, but she was Callie's friend. A good friend, I realised with a sigh.

"Yeah, um…" I struggled for words.

Meredith, obviously sensing my confliction, interrupted me. "You don't have to explain anything to me that you don't want to. I just want to make sure you're okay. Are you?"

I nodded. Although she had pointed out that I didn't owe her an explanation, I could tell she was curious. I also felt I at least owed her a brief one. "It's okay. Um, about two years ago I started getting all of these texts. Weird ones from a blocked number, with creepy stuff written like 'I know you but you don't know me', you know? And it went on and on until one night this guy followed me home… He started hitting me and kicking me and I couldn't fight him off…" I had to cut myself off, choking back the bile that threatened its way up my throat.

"Oh my God. Did he…?" She didn't finish her sentence, but I knew exactly what she was asking. I shook my head.

"No. A passing car stopped next to us and the driver beat the crap out of him." I concluded, proud of myself for getting through the story without breaking down. The version that I had told Meredith was nowhere near as detailed as the one I had told Callie, but it didn't need to be. "I need to go." I said suddenly, finding the tension in the room too much. "Just don't tell anyone, okay?"

"I promise." She nodded, watching me leave.

The nightmare resulted in a downhill spiral in my mood department. I was incredibly pissed that I couldn't move past them. It had been so long since my last one, because normally I had Callie sleeping beside me. She stood for safety, and even subconsciously my brain knew that I was safe with her. But when I had to sleep alone it was a different story, as proven by tonight.

To say that it was a relief to finally be going home the next day was the understatement of the year. Due to my hectic week and crazy hours it meant that I now had three days off, and I planned to sleep, sleep, eat, and sleep.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you." I said as I entered our apartment to see Callie lounging on the couch watching some crappy TV show.

"If it's even half as glad as I am to see you, then it's a lot." She replied, pulling me into her arms as I sat beside her.

"It was a rough night. I had another nightmare." I revealed. In the past I had tried to hide my nightmares from Callie, but it was too hard.

"Aw, sweetie. You should have called." She told me. I rested my head in the crook of her neck as she ran her hand comfortingly through my hair.

"I know, I just…" I sighed, not even sure what I was going to say.

"You don't have to explain. Come on, let's go to bed."

The next few months were some of the best in my life. Never before had I felt so happy in a relationship, and my career was going better than ever. Teddy and I had recently published an article on Von Hippel Lindau Syndrome in children which had grown extremely popular in the medical world, and I felt more content than I ever had in my life.

"Do you really have to go?" Callie sked sadly as we waited in the main entrance of the hospital. Teddy and I were flying to Boise, Idaho to give a lecture at a university about our article.

"I'm sorry, baby. I'll be back tomorrow night." I told her softly.

"Don't be sorry. My girlfriend is a super-hot, badass peds surgeon." She said excitedly.

"Oh really, what's her name?" I asked.

"You wouldn't know her. She's very modest." She replied, playing along. Over her shoulder I saw Teddy waving at me frantically, looking like a weirdo. I laughed at her actions and refocused on Callie.

"I love you so much." I told her seriously, giving her a gentle kiss that lingered for multiple seconds. I pulled her into a hug. "We'll celebrate my badassery when I get home." I whispered in her ear before I let her go and walked off to join Teddy, waving at her over my shoulder.

"So how's Henry?" I asked Teddy as we boarded the plane. I hated flying, but mostly it was the taking off part that scared me the most. The idea of ascending thousands of miles into the air in a thin silver tube somehow just didn't appeal to me.

"He's great. We've been on three more dates since you met him."

"So you passed the three date mark, huh? How did that go?"

She smiled. "It was amazing. Seriously, I don't know why you don't go for guys."

"Ew, icky boy penises. No thank you." I said in disgust as I scrunched up my nose. Just then the plane started moving. Until then I hadn't even noticed it had been trafficking, and my hands gripped the armrests tightly as the plane started to gather speed.

"Nervous flyer?" Teddy asked with a smirk as she watched me try to calm myself.

"Nervous as fuck." I confirmed, screwing my eyes shut.

I hated flying. I always felt closer to death on a plane than in the OR. It was funny. I dealt with life or death cases nearly every day. The prospect of either saving a child and allowing them to live a full life, or failing and robbing them of endless opportunities was terrifying. And yet I was still more scared of flying than I was of that particular prospect.

I stared out of the window, intently watching the clouds. I even chanced a couple of glances down as we were taking off but I had almost immediately looked away. Once we had finally taken off, it wasn't so bad, now that we were up in the air- it felt safer and steadier.

That was until, about an hour in, the plane started to shake violently. I gripped the armrests for dear life, screwing my eyes shut. "It's just turbulence, it's just turbulence…" I repeated to myself over and over until it finally subsided and we both went back to our original relaxed stances.

"Some turbulence." I heard Teddy say under her breath. However, our moment of peace was soon ruptured yet again by further violent jerks from the plane. This time I panicked when it didn't subside as quickly as it had the last time.

I took a quick glance out of the window, looking straight down to the ground, alarmed when I could actually see the ground. I shouldn't have been able to see the ground, only clouds. But as I stared down I could make out the many trees of the forest which looked like a carpet of dark green underneath us. I felt my heart rate speed up slightly as I turned to look at Teddy, who looked as equally concerned as I imagined I did.

"We're really low." I said, although it came out as a mere whisper as the plane continued to shake and jerk violently. The lights continued to flicker before they all finally went out, leaving us in darkness.

Suddenly, there was an almighty crack. It was louder than anything I had ever heard- even louder than the gunshots I'd heard while at the shooting range with my father. There was another loud crack as the plane dipped dangerously low. I looked back and screamed.

All I could see was sky. The light from outside was blinding and I held my arms protectively around my head as we began falling. Lower, lower…

And then I was falling. I don't remember much. I screamed as I continued to speed towards the ground, which got closer and closer. It was all happening so fast, but yet it seemed to happen in slow motion. I remember my mind drifting to Callie, her happy face from the last time that I'd seen her.

A thud.

Confusion.

Blackness.

Sooorrrry… I had no idea I was gonna write this in until I was writing it in. Don't worry, it won't be the same as the original Grey's plane crash.

Ps. The time skip was about three months. Please enjoy and happy existing!