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 : Credit to my amazing beta Pha, you are super!
Chapter 13
"Hi George." Callie breathed out.
"Callie! Callie! My god! Where are you?"
"I… need you to sign the paper."
"I need to see you, tell me where you are, I'll come over right away."
"George, please listen to me. Just sign the papers Meyer gave you, ok?"
"Callie, let's work this out, we don't need to divorce, every married couple has their ups and downs, we just hit our bumps, we can get through this together."
"What we had was a mistake, I am so sorry I let it happened, I am really sorry. Please, just sign the divorce papers; then we can go our separate ways."
"No Callie, I love you, please don't leave me. Tell me where you are, give me your contact number, this stupid phone couldn't show your number. Give me one more chance to show you I love you, we can work this out Callie, you are my wife, I love you."
A headache was forming in her head, Callie held up her hand to rub her left temple.
"Oh please George, why don't you get it? What we had was a drunken mistake, I was in a bad shape, I shouldn't have taken you as a rebound, it was not fair to you…"
"Do you know what's not fair to me? My wife disappearing on me, that´s not fair to me. This is a marriage Callie, it's two of us in this marriage and in God's eyes you are my wife, I am in love with you, please let's give it a try, ok?"
"George, why don't you get it? I never felt the same for you, I am really sorry but you have to understand, this shouldn't have happened in the first place, we shouldn't have got together, we shouldn't have got married. Let's move on, please, just please sign the papers."
"I will not sign anything until I see you, Callie. You forgot our love because we haven't seen each other for months, please give me another chance. I'll come over right away."
"Oh my God, love won't be forgotten if it's real love... I feel like talking to a brick wall. Listen, sign it or not, I don't care, I give up. I can still get a divorce without your consent, may take us a year or two, I don't care anymore. Goodbye George."
"Wait wait wait Callie, please wait…"
"I said what I wanted to say, you said what you wanted to say, we are done. Bye."
Callie threw the mobile on the couch with frustration, with her head leaned against the back of the couch she rubbed her face with both hands. She was slapping herself mentally, how could she found someone so stubborn and so crazy to marry her in the first place? She really didn't know.
The brunette nearly jumped out of her seat when the phone started to ring, she picked it up with a shaky hand but couldn't help to smile when she found out who was calling. There was no way George could find her number and called back, she affirmed to herself.
"Hey." The voice of angel came from the other side of the phone.
"Hey yourself, how was your day?"
"Busy. Already had two back to back surgeries, now I´m waiting for Bailey to have another meeting about the clinic. How was yours?"
"Well, I had lunch with Mark and Cristina at home, then drove Cristina to Owen's to pick up her things."
"Oh, how is she?"
"The same, I guess, we had a little talk. She's out with Meredith for the night. How is the clinic going? Any progress?"
"I checked the renovation this morning, it should be finished in a couple days. We are going to settle some administration arrangements, then the place will be up and running in no time."
"Great, that means I'll have more time with my girlfriend or I´ll have to share you with more sick kids? I really don't want to have to make a kid, and make it sick all the time so that I could steal some time with you, you know."
"Oh my God, that would make you the world's most horrible mother. But speaking of which, I do have several patients always coming back to me, maybe their makers are thinking the same." Arizona said with a chuckle.
"Ok, now I want names." Callie said in a serious tone that made the other woman laughed harder.
"I have to go, Dr. Bailey is giving me the glare, gotta go to the meeting. Talk to you later?"
"Don't forget the names I need. Bye."
"Bye Callie."
She smiled to the phone in her hand, Arizona felt warmth spread in her heart. It had been a long time since she had a girlfriend, even thought they were not in the intimate level of the relationship yet, and that was killing her sometimes, having Callie as her girlfriend was the best thing in the world.
"Dr. Robbins, sorry to disturb your daydream, but I am afraid we can't start the meeting without you, are you coming?" The very irritating Miranda Bailey poked her head out from the conference room to call out for Arizona.
"So sorry Dr. Bailey, I´m coming."
As soon as Arizona sat down on the far end of the conference table, Miranda started to talk.
"Ok, thanks everyone, let's start. The agenda for today… First, about the clinic itself, this morning Dr. Robbins, Nurse Hathaway and myself checked with the contractor Mr. Graham, as he promised, the renovation is about to be finished in two days. He will have his team clean up the place afterwards and schedule sterilization as well."
"Does this mean the clinic can be open in a week?" Jennings, who represented the board was also in this meeting.
"Yes Mr. Jennings." Miranda casted him a Bailey glare and then continued. "As I just said, the clinic is almost ready to be open. I already informed the medical suppliers to make the delivery four days afterwards."
Everyone on the table nodded, pleased with the information.
"And about the staff arrangement, thanks to the support from Seattle Grace, we could have access with two in-house surgical residents and their interns, and four nurses in 12 hours shift each."
"Only when they are free, you can't pull them out from the surgery they are taking part in." The Chief said in a hurry.
"You don't have to worry about that, Chief." Miranda rolled her eyes. "Even though Dr. Robbins and I are appointed to handle the clinic, with the workload of the Head of Pediatric Surgery and the attending of general surgery, we won't have enough time to manage the routine day by day. Also, we can't fully depend on the hospital, so the clinic will hire a full time physician and two nurses."
"You are hiring, from outside?" The Chief asked.
"Yes, we already received some resumes, Dr. Robbins and I will study them and set up interviews, Nurse Hathaway, as the Chief Nurse, will take part of the nurse hiring. But we won't have to wait for the new hires, since we have the support from the hospital, the clinic can be opened in a week to ten days."
"So does it mean you and Dr. Robbins are not the ones to run the clinic day by day?" Jennings intercepted Miranda again. "You know Mr. Anderson instructed specifically that he wants you two to run the place, that was the condition, remember? Dr. Robbins?"
Arizona jerked from the sudden attention from Jennings, these old habits won't be gone in a day.
"Yes sir." She answered in a small voice, took a deep breath then continued in her normal voice. "Mr. Jennings, we would have liked to get more time to work at the clinic but we couldn't. Our priority should be the daily work at the hospital, and we found the solution. The full time physician will be the proxy of Dr. Bailey and me to work at the clinic, we will have a weekly report and monthly meeting including Nurse Hathaway. The three of us will oversee the operating and be on call in all time."
"And we ran the idea with Mrs. Anderson over the phone last week, she is positive with this arrangement." Miranda jumped in the conversation, the PEDS surgeon gave her a thankful glance.
"Sounds great." As soon as they ensured him that the idea was approved by the donor, Jennings sank back to his seat and focused on his mobile.
As explained by Miranda, this meeting was gonna be the last one before the opening, they had to go through every detail and explain every decision to everyone who partook in the meeting. Involuntarily, the meeting lasted three hours and it could have been longer if Jennings didn't insisted on cutting it short.
"I can't believe we did it, Miranda." Arizona said to the woman who stayed behind in the conference room with her.
"It's not opened yet, so we haven't done it yet." Miranda was running around the table to pick up the files and folders, she kept a serious face but the ghost of smile played around her lips.
"In ten days." Arizona just managed to smother a big yawn with a hand. "Sorry, I´m exhausted."
"When was the last time you took some days off?"
"Don't remember, after Wallace, I guess." She let out another big yawn.
"Of course you are exhausted, sick kids were like choosing to come to you, all at the same time." After gathering the files, Miranda sat on the opposite of the conference table.
"You know what, most of the administer jobs were settled, the only thing we have to do together is hiring. You go take a few days, relax and then come back to work you ass off for the opening, what do you say?"
"No, I can't leave you to do the work alone." Arizona exclaimed.
"Yes, you can and you will. You were the reason we got this clinic, take the holiday as a thank you gift from me." Miranda nodded to Arizona, then got up to leave the room.
"Hey, do you want to get a drink? As celebration?" Arizona followed.
"Are you buying?"
"We are going to my girlfriend's pub, I don't plan to pay for anything." The PEDS surgeon smirked and patted the shorter woman's shoulder.
"Umm… Callie, I ordered a rum and coke light, but I couldn't taste any rum in this one." Jennifer, a usual customer pulled the bartender out of her thoughts.
"Sorry, I'll get you another one."
"Something's wrong? You seem kinda off tonight." Jennifer propped her elbow against the counter top, rested her chin on her palm and smiled to Callie. If the body language didn't scream seduction enough, the tight blouse without the top three buttons said it all.
"I'm fine, just a bit tired."
"Oh you poor baby, didn't sleep well? Not used to the wet and cold winter in Seattle? Maybe you could use a body warmer in bed, could keep you warm through the night."
Being a bartender for so long, of course Callie would know when she was being hit on, but now she was just too distract to react.
"No, I slept well, thanks. And the weather is not so bad, I like the cold, sometimes I even open the window during the day." She put the new drink in front of the flirty woman. "The heater in my room works well, so yet, I slept well."
"So… you don't have a body warmer, huh?" Jennifer's eyebrow rose up.
"What is a body warmer?"
Jennifer leaned forward, beckoning Callie to come close to her. When their heads were just few centimeters away from each other, Jennifer looked into the brown eyes and licked her lips seductively.
"You know, a body in bed to keep your warm and satisfy. Do you wanna try one tonight?"
A bang on the counter top made the two women jumped.
Looking at the source of the sound, Callie grinned when she found her girlfriend there, two seats away from Jennifer.
"Hey, you are here." The bartender leaned forward as far as she could to try to kiss her girlfriend on the other side of the counter top, but the blonde just gave her a featherlike peck.
"Yeah, sorry I didn't call first."
"You don't have to call in advance, you are always welcomed. Hello Miranda."
"Hi Callie, are we coming in a bad time?"
"What are you talking about?" Callie frowned with the question, hands busy fixing the drinks for her friends.
"Here you go, vodka tonic for you Miranda. And this one, Manhattan with extra cherries for my girl." The bartender put down the glass in front of Arizona with a hearty smile, but the woman still hadn't returned the glance.
Callie looked at Miranda with wide-eyes, silently asking for help. The shorter woman chanced a glance to the woman who was flirting with Callie earlier.
Realization kicked in. Callie leaned forward again, this time she used both hands to grab Arizona's face for a passionate kiss. Everyone around the bar top witnessed it. She meant for everyone to witness it.
When the kiss stopped, Callie pulled away slightly to look at the blonde, who looked back at her in the eyes, biting her lip to hide the smirk on her face.
"Can you come to the back, I need to talk to you." Callie whispered to her girlfriend. "Joe, cover me, ok?"
As soon as the two women were alone in the back office, lips found each other again. Callie held the PEDS surgeon against the wall, hands instantly flying to Arizona's firm ass.
Even though they agreed on going slow, they were still human, it was getting harder and harder to keep their hands away from inappropriate places, or grind against each other.
They broke the kiss for air, Arizona nuzzled the crook of her girlfriend's neck, inhaled deeply the unique scent from the body wrapping her. The intimacy made the taller woman let out a soft moan and tightened the hold of her arms.
A light chuckle came out from the blonde, Callie pulled away a little to look down to her girlfriend, who returned a naughty smile.
"Did you know that every time when we made out, your hands end up on my butt?"
"What can I say? It´s a good butt." Callie laughed and squeezed her hands to amplify her point.
"Yours not too bad either." Arizona smacked Callie's hip lightly and waltzed away from her hold.
"You said you needed to talk to me, was that an excuse to lure me here, so you could have your way with me, Miss Torres?"
"Well, I really need to talk to you, but jealous you were just so hot that I couldn't keep my hands off you." Callie sat on the edge of her desk, and smiled when Arizona came to stand in front of her.
"I wasn't jealous."
"You were and it was totally hot." Callie whispered before she closed the distance between their lips. This kiss was not as hungry as the previous one, their tongues danced against each other slowly, savoring the moment.
"I have something to tell you though. Miranda gave me a great gift…" Arizona said after pulled away from the kiss.
"A pony?" Callie grinned.
"Do you want a pony?"
"No, I want a unicorn."
Arizona rolled her eyes and then continued.
"As I was saying, Miranda gave me a gift, she released me from clinic duties until it opens in ten days, well five to six days precisely because we will have to interview people we need to hire. I talked to the Chief, he gave me a five day holiday, I just have to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning to reschedule some work and then I'm free."
"That is great. Do you have any plans in mind?" Callie beamed.
"I was wondering…"
"You know what? Let's go to LA. The beach, the sun, you in a bikini, me putting sunscreen on you… Wait, you do want to go on a holiday with me?"
"Of course I do, that's why I am asking you, you moron." Arizona kissed her girl one more time. "We should get out of here, I dragged Miranda to celebrate the almost ready clinic, she will kill me if I leave her out there alone for too long."
"Ok, we'll talk about our plans later, I do have something to tell you too."
The two walked out from the back hand in hand, matching smiles showing everyone how happy they were together.
"Hey it took you long enough to come back, I was about to get up and leave." Miranda said coldly.
"Sorry Miranda, we were just…" Callie tried to explained, but Miranda cut her off.
"Nah, I don't need to know your business behind the closed door."
"No Miranda, I was just telling Callie about the holiday, we will leave for LA. So, this is the last chance, are you sure it's OK for me to go away for five days?"
"I told you, the last important duty we have to do is hire staff. We already received some resumes, I'll study them and set up interviews after you return. The hard part is over."
"Here here," Miranda raised her glass. "To our clinic."
"To Wallace." Arizona clinked her glass.
"To Arizona." Callie picked up a shot of tequila to join the two women, the blonde shoot a shy smile to her girlfriend, and Miranda echoed the bartender. "To Arizona."
"To my mother." Joe quickly picked up a bottle of beer and joined the toast, earning glares from the three women. "What? I am not allowed to drink to my mother?"
They all laughed together and finished their drinks after Callie playfully punched him on the arm.
After a couple more drinks, Miranda excused herself as she still had a full day of work waiting for her the next day. Arizona wanted to spend more time with her girlfriend but the yawns gave her away.
"Honey you´re tired, wanna call it the night?" Callie put her hand over the blonde's on the table.
"But I wanna stay with you, we still have to talk about the holiday, and you said you have something to tell me."
It broke Callie's heart to see exhaustion written all over the blonde's face but she didn't want Arizona to leave yet.
"How about you stay the night at my place? Now you go up to take a bath, relax and get yourself comfortable. I'll come up a little later as soon as Joe has finished his break, and I´ll tell him about the holiday I'm going to take. Half an hour tops, ok?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure. My collection of bath salts and oils are in the cabinet next to the hamper, feel free to use the towels, the night clothes are in the second drawer of the rosewood chest you made me bought. Hmm… don't open the first drawer, my panties and bras are in there."
Arizona cocked her head to ask with her eyes one more time.
"Cristina is not coming back tonight, you'll have the whole apartment to yourself until I get there, now go." Callie picked up a single key from under the bar and handed it to Arizona.
They shared a peck then Arizona stood up from the stool about to leave.
"Arizona," Callie called out. "that key… umm… it's a spare… I umm… put it here… If you want… you know… you can… keep it, only if you want to…"
A broad dimpled smile found the way to the PEDS surgeon's face.
"I'd love to keep the spare key to your apartment."