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 : stuck in a pub with my bosses, they're chitchatting and I just take out my ipad to mind my own business, so yea, why not to put another chapter out :-) just found that this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, hope you guys won't mind.

Chapter 9

Joe arrived in Horizon a little passed 2, surprised that the metal gate had been pulled up already, that indicated Callie was already in there.

Opened the door, there was Callie sitting by the small stage lost in reverie. Joe went over to sit next to his boss, wrapped his arm around the other, he asked "What now?"

"Nothing."

"Callie…"

"Do you think, I could find another Malena?" Callie tilted her head to look at Joe.

"No, you couldn't." Joe returned the glance, and then continued "There was only 1 Malena, just as only 1 Callie, only 1 Joe, and only 1 Arizona."

"Then, do you think I am capable of loving another one like I loved her?" The brunette leaned her head on Joe and asked softly.

"You are capable of doing anything, Callie. Don't sell yourself short, you are smart, you are charming, you are gorgeous, and most importantly, you are caring, you have a big heart, no doubt that you could love someone deeply, truly and wholly."

"Why couldn't I love George?"

"He was the wrong one at the wrong time, you knew it, he knew it. Love could grow stronger, but you can't grow love from nothing. You didn't love him, you just didn't want to be alone. And for him? You were good for his ego, to have a stunning and successful woman next to him made him feel better about his miserable life, but he didn't love you, because people won't destroy the person that they love." Joe stated affirmatively.

"You really don't like him." Callie chuckled slightly. "Seriously, none of my friends like him. What was I thinking?"

"You weren't thinking, you soaked yourself into sorrow and grief, you were numb to the world."

"Do you know, Mark didn't know Malena was dead?"

"I know, and he knew it."

"You told him?" Callie was startled. "When?"

"When you were in LA. I told Mark the first thing when I arrived in here to take care of the renovation, had to make sure he won't talk about the sore subject. Forgive me?" The big guy ducked his head to look at the Latina in the eyes.

"I love you, brother." Callie leaned her head on Joe's shoulder again.

"I love you too, little sis." Joe kissed the head of the brunette, who had her eyes closed.

"Will you marry me if you were not gay?"

"No, you are too tough, I liked my woman soft, fragile, feminine." They both laugh out loud. "And you have to stop asking people to marry you, there are a lot of crazy people out that, you may run into another George who is crazy enough to marry you just because he loves to get married."

"Joe, I am scared. I don't know if I could afford to love a wrong person, I feel … she could break me easily."

"What make you think that?"

"You know those nurses from the hospital?"

"OK, what have you hear?"

"I went to there couple hours ago tried to find Arizona, overheard some nurses said Arizona is a female Sloan."

"Oh…"

"Yea, oh. A female Sloan just dumped someone she had been… umm… doing for few months because she has eyes on a new nurse in plastic."

"But Callie, you know those nurses, they are full of negative energy toward the well paid doctors, you can't believe what they said…." He caved when locked eyes with Callie. "Fine, they got the first hand news, but I say you can't trust all those things they said."

"But Arizona admitted that she kept the friends with benefit relationship with that one…"

"That doesn't mean anything, and as you said they were finished."

"Why are you siding hers?" Callie cast a sideways glance at Joe.

"Because I know you too well, you like her. You are not looking for reasons not to be with her, you are seeking for supports, to back you up about the idea of starting something with her."

"Have I told you I love you?"

Joe kissed the top of Callie's head again. "There's one thing you have to ask yourself first though, are you sure you are not just to get a replacement of Malena?"

"I… I don't think I am. Of course I didn't think I could like someone else so quickly, after all Malena was gone not even a year. But I think I passed the fifth stage of grief that afternoon when I told you guys I was going to leave New York, I was kind of accepted that she was gone… forever, and she didn't want me to anguish because of her."

"You are right." Joe smiled to her. "Talk to Arizona, tell her what you think and let her answers your questions."

"I will, when I'm ready."

"Are you working tonight? You look exhausted."

"No, I don't want to work tonight." Callie stood up to stretch, turned around and said "What would I do without you in my life?"

"You won't ever need to find out." Joe grinned to his beloved friend.

"Thank you." Callie leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, then walked toward upstairs to home.

Later that night, Arizona entered Horizon with the same tote bag that Callie gave her at noon, the different was the boxes inside was empty and well washed. She walked straight to the bar, surprised that there was only Joe in there, again.

"Hi Joe, how are you?" She sat on the stool on the side of the bar, glanced around tried to spot the Latina.

"I'm fine, Dr. Robbins, do you want something to drink?" The big guy asked with the smile.

"Told you, you can call my name, I could like to have a Manhattan, please. Is Callie around? She said she is going to work tonight."

"Ah no, she still didn't feel well, said a headache or something because she didn't sleep last night, hopefully she's sleeping upstairs now." Joe put the drink in front of the blonde doctor.

Arizona nodded and took a sip of her drink.

Joe leaned toward to have his elbows on the countertop, getting closer to the woman and said. "I like Callie, and I like you, so I am going to tell you this. Callie used to process her feeling out loud, but life had been really rough to her then she withdrew to protect herself." He continued when he had the full attention from the doctor in front of him. "Don't let her drive you away if you like her, stick around, don't let her drive you away, she'll come around."

Joe nodded to Arizona then turned to another customer, left the blonde to ponder on his speech.

Stared in space for a while, Arizona decided tonight was not the time to stalk Callie, took a big gulp of the drink and then stood up from her seat, she called Joe and handed over the tote bag. "Can you give these to Callie, and tell her I stopped by? And if she wants, she can call me or text me anytime. Oh and … Never mind, I'll text her myself. Thanks Joe."

Walking out of the pub, she pulled out the phone from her bag and started to text 'Hi, I stopped by the pub but Joe told me you're not feeling well, hope you are resting and I didn't wake you up. Just want to thank you for the foods, hope you won't mind that I shared them with Mark and Teddy because they were in the attending lounge when I ate them. We all agreed that you are an amazing cook, the foods were delicious ;-) Call me or text me when you are available, ok? I'll wait.'

Walked closer to her building, the phone what was still in her hand started to ring, surprise to see that it was Callie calling, already.

Took a deep breath, Arizona answered the call. "Hello."

"… Hi Arizona."

"Callie, how are you feeling?"

"… I am fine, thanks for asking."

"I left the boxes to Joe, because you weren't there."

"… Thanks, I'll get it tomorrow."

"I had to share them with Teddy, and Mark, hope you won't mind."

"… That is OK."

"Mark literally in tears when he tasted the chicken piccata, he missed that."

"… I'm glad."

Each question took Callie quite some time to answer, and it came out short and flat, Arizona started to loss it.

"Callie, do you want to talk? Do you want me to come over? I am just around the corner."

Arizona could hear the deep breath from the other end of the phone, then she heard "I am not ready."

"Not ready for what?" The blonde asked softly, lower herself to the steps of the building's doorway.

"Not ready for… you. I am scared and I know we should talk, in person. But I don't even ready to face you yet…"

"Callie… Can you at least tell me why did you pull away again?"

"I…"

"Tell me what made you scared, let's talk about it before we drove ourselves crazy, ok?"

"Are you a womanizer?" Callie asked after a long pause.

"What?" It really took Arizona by surprise.

"I overheard the nurses talked about you and Colleen, they said you are female Sloan… And I knew the male Sloan…"

"I knew this is going to bite me in the ass… I had my past, and I am not proud of it. Remember I told you my family moved in every 18 months because of my dad? I think that was why I had no intention of keeping any long team relationship, I had a girlfriend from college, another one from med school, both didn't last longer than 8 months. I didn't know if things will last, so, I kept it casual."

"Then… what am I to you?" Callie asked with uncertainty lingered in her voice, that almost broke Arizona's heart.

"I know 'I don't know' is not the answer you are looking for, but for the moment this is the only answer I have. I don't fully trust myself that I won't hurt you, but I will do my best not to." She stated firmly, and she really hoped the person on the other end of the phone could feel it.

All Arizona could hear was a sigh from the phone.

"We don't have to rush to anything, ok? We rush, we'll make mistake, just take your time. We can hang out like we did in the last couple weeks, no need to decide where we stand now, just go with the flow."

"After last night, I didn't scare you off?"

Smiled slight, Arizona answered "No, you didn't."

"… Thank you." A whisper came from the phone.

"No, thank you, for telling me." Arizona said sincerely, and she added "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm all ears."

"… Thank you, again."

"I… ummm… talked to Mark today. He seemed really regret of what he did, Derek said he never saw Mark so panic over someone. Apparently we have some kind of power over him. I had to forgive him when he almost burst into tear in front of me and Teddy, but I had reminded him that he owes me a big one."

"I am not mad at him, I knew he always being over protective. When I told him about me married George, he almost hopped on a plane to make me a widow."

"Ha! He always tells me he has my back, I thought he was just saying it, this side of Mark is kind of new to me." The blonde chuckled.

"Well, when everything in your life is always a disaster, you could be no stranger to Mark Sloan the protective big brother." Callie said bitterly.

"I'm sorry."

"No, you have nothing to sorry about, it's fine. When you see Mark, can you tell him I'm not angry? I just… don't want to talk to him yet."

"No problem, I'll tell him, no need to worry about that."

"Thanks. I should go…"

"Yes, get some sleep, get better soon."

"Thank you, bye Arizona"

"Wait, Callie."

"Yes?"

"… don't try to avoid me again, please?"

Soft laugh came through the phone "You have my words."

"Thanks. Sleep like an angel, Callie."

"Good night Arizona."

The call ended, but Arizona remained on the steps, thought about Callie, thought about the heartbreak she went through, the pain was so big that made her made a massive mistake of life. She couldn't bring herself to think about if she would be enough to fill this big hole in Callie's heart.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a shadow coming closer, looked up and greeted the other with a deadpan. "Hi Mark."

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Mark sat next to Arizona, full of concern.

"Thinking. I talked to Callie, just minutes ago." She held up her phone.

"Ya, how is she doing? I didn't dare to enter there yet."

"She didn't go to work tonight, Joe said she didn't feel well. I texted her, she called back."

"And?"

"She forgave you. She is not mad at you, just doesn't ready to talk yet. She and I have to talk too, but have to wait when she is ready. She told me she's scared."

"Understandable."

"Not complaining." Arizona smile lightly.

"What do you want to do?"

"To be honest, I don't know. You know I haven't been in serious relationship like… forever, Callie couldn't handle a fling and I don't even know if I just want a fling with her or something more. I don't just want to rip off her clothes, I am thinking to go on a date with her, with flickering candle light and fancy waiters to bring us foods pour us wine."

"Have you told her that?"

"She said she is not ready, Mark. We will have the talk when the time is right, for now, I told her to go with the flow."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Yup. And she promised that she won't avoid me again."

Mark extended his arm to wrap around Arizona for a tight huge, kissed the top of her head. The blonde put her head on Mark's shoulder, both sat in silent enjoying the quiet in the night.

After a while, Arizona asked without looking up "Do you think, this will turn really bad?"

"Do you like her?" Mark asked softly.

"I like her even before I knew she likes women, now I feel like… I have a chance, you know. She's hot."

"Tell me about it." Mark chuckled, that earned a slap on the arm from Arizona.

"Don't hate me, ok? As I said before, I don't want anyone of you get hurt. As your friend, I knew Callie was broken. As her friend, I knew you have commitment issue. How could I…"

"So I should stay away?" The blonde asked.

"Don't ask me, I tried and that almost cause me my two best friends, I am going to stay out of it. You are on your own kiddo."

"Are you serious? Not even if I ask you information about Callie?"

"You are on your own." Mark kissed her temple, then stood up and pulled the woman along. "Time to go home, get some sleep, you have to work tomorrow."

They walked side by side to the building, entered the elevator and marched to their doors, before entered their respective apartments, Mark turned and said "Just follow the flow, as you said it. Good night."

"Good night Mark, thank you."