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 : First of all, thank you all once again for liking this story and coming back to read the new chapter. I really appreciate the supports.
10x11, holy hell! I don't care it seems they're sweeping things under the rug again, that was one hell of a kiss and the way Callie pulled Arizona in for the kiss was HOT!

Extremely thankful to the wonderful Calzonaforever35 help beta this chapter, you rock girl!

Chapter 30

Lucia went to see her husband in the ICU hours ago. After the short conversation they had, and the messages she got from her assistant about Teddy's credentials and the opinion from their family doctor, she finally gave in and let Teddy repair the tear in Carlos's coronary artery.

Now, they sat waiting in the dead silent room. Arizona sat next to her girlfriend quietly, and had her arm wrapped around the Latina casually. Her palm placed on the tense shoulder, and their bodies remained at a respectful distance because they both knew, Lucia Torres wasn't too comfortable seeing her daughter with a woman.

The ice had broken after Miranda Bailey entered the waiting room. A 14 years old boy had been sent to the ER with severe back pain, and the doctors couldn't get a diagnoses after all the tests.

"No Bailey, I can't leave." Arizona shifted in her seat to face her colleague. "I'm not even on call today. Call someone else."

"Robbins, you are the best. I need the best." Bailey insisted, and she chanced a glance to the Latina sitting next to the PEDS surgeon. "I wouldn't have come to you if there was someone else. The pain was bad enough to cause vomit. The poor boy is in pain, his mother is miserable, and I need you to work. I need you to talk me through this."

"Bailey…"

"Arizona," Callie whispered to her girlfriend after minutes of silence. "There's nothing we can do in here except wait. You should go and help the boy."

"No Calliope, I'm not leaving you here alone." Arizona whispered to her girlfriend, but the determination between her brows was shaking. After all, she was a surgeon and there was a teenager in need.

"I'm not alone." Callie chuckled softly. "And I'll call you when I need you, ok?"

After getting a promise from the Latina, Arizona placed a tender kiss on Callie's temple, and then stood up to leave the room with Bailey.

Lucia stared at them openly. She saw the interaction between them, and of course she saw how her daughter leaned on this woman and how this woman took care of her daughter… But it just felt so wrong.

She shifted her gaze back on her phone when she was met with familiar brown eyes. A moment later, she felt a shadow approach her, and she sighed.

"Mom, do you mind… Um... can I sit here?" Callie asked her mother timidly.

Lucia lifted her head to look at her daughter, and gave her a tight smile before the younger Latina sat down next to her.

"How are you, mom?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking." The older Latina gazed at her daughter for a split second, but quickly shifted to stare at afar.

"So… How is work? Since Atia is helping out at the firm, your workload has to be lighter." Callie tried again, chewing her lips nervously.

"Well, you know your sister. She's working there but not being really helpful." Lucia gave a small smile, then looked down at the cellphone in hand as if she was busy reading something.

Callie closed her eyes and sighed heavily. She put her head in her hand and rubbed her temples with her thumb and the middle finger; as she tried to rub away the headache that had formed over the last couple of hours. She knew she shouldn't start a fight with her mother but she couldn't help herself. It had been a long day.

"OK, what, mom?" Still rubbing her temples, Callie asked. "You aren't happy to see me again?"

"What? No. It's… lovely to see you." Lucia was taken back with the direct question, and hardly managed to get a response out of her mouth.

"Lovely." Callie let out a sarcastic laugh and shook her head, still had her head in the hand.

"What else do you want me to say?" She shook her head slightly. After all these years, her daughter still had this irascible temper.

"Oh, I don't know. Something?" The young Latina shrugged. She pursed her lips before she say straight up to continue. "I mean, we haven't seen each other in years. I talked to dad, and every time I tried to call you, you were either away from home, or busy with something. Then I invited both of you come visit Seattle, dad told me you were in London but in all actuality you were at home."

"I cannot believe you're picking this fight right now." Lucia shot up from the seat to stay away from her now furious daughter.

"I'm not trying to pick a fight, I'm trying to talk to you." Callie raised her voice. "I can't believe after all these years you still can't accept who I am. You still can't forgive me for loving women."

The apple does not fall far from the tree... Lucia Torres was not a serene woman. The worry about Carlos and the exhaustion from traveling got the best of her.

"It is a sin." She said coldly. "How can you expect me to just accept you, renounce the faith in god? Didn't you learn from the bible that this will put you in hell?"

"This is ridiculous. I didn't renounce anything. I still believe in god, I still have my faith in god." Callie stood up from the chair slowly. She felt like it was going back to 7 years ago after Erica arrived at her doorstep claiming to take her out on a date. "I didn't abandon my faith and love in god. You were the one that abandoned me."

"Don't say it like this was my fault, Callie. You chose to leave your family for 6/7 years. You left the people who loved you behind. We didn't even know if you were still alive." Lucia stated slowly, with fire in her dark eyes. "Do you have any idea what you did to your father? He loves you more than anyone and you just disappeared without looking back. I won't be surprised if the doctor said his heart problem was caused from worrying too much."

Callie stood there looking at her mother with her mouth opened in shock. Was she really that selfish?

"And now?" A snort came from the woman standing in front of her. "Now you shove your 'life style' in his face and force him to accept it, against his faith?"

"I didn't force him to accept anything. Mom, I just…"

"You did! You made him choose between agreeing with your sinful act or either never seeing you again. He didn't really have a choice, did he?" Lucia snorted loudly. "You made him accept homosexuality. You made him study things about it. He even went to have lunches with the gay staff in the hotels for God sakes!" The older Torres made a wry face as in disgust with the idea. Callie just looked at her with wide eyes.

"Mom, really. I didn't. He just… he said he wanted to understand it but I didn't tell him to do all this. All I did was to show him how happy I am now. I am really happy and deeply in love." The younger Latina said in a choked voice. "It's not about the gender. I love Arizona not because she is a woman, but because I love her and she loves me. Why can't you just be happy for me?"

"I- " Mrs. Torres was about to answer, but her attention had drawn to the surgical duo who just stepped in the waiting room.

"Mrs. Torres, Callie." Teddy and Cristina both looked knida uncomfortable of walking in a family argument, but they had news to deliver. "The surgery went well. We were able to repair the tear and there were no complications during surgery. Mr. Torres is doing just great."

"Thank God, and thank you Dr. Altman." Lucia let out a heavy sigh, with a relieved smile on her face.

"Thank you Teddy, and Cristina." Callie smiled to her friends behind her mother. Both gave her a nod.

"Don't mention it. We were just doing our job. He's in recovery, but you can go to see him now."

"Dr. Altman," Lucia stopped the doctors from leaving. "I've talked to our family doctor, and he said as long as Carlos is stable after the surgery, he can get on a plane. I am going to transfer my husband back to Miami tomorrow."

"As his doctor, I don't recommend that. But if you insist on sending him back to Miami so soon, I will do everything to help you arrange it."

A knock on the door pulled the blonde surgeon out from what she was doing.

After she left her girlfriend in the waiting room, she ran to change into scrubs and met the patient. Bailey was right, there had been no signs from all the tests and scans, but the teenage boy was clearly in a lot of pain, and so was his mother.

As soon as they got the consent from the mother, both doctors wheeled the boy to the OR for an exploratory surgery. They still found nothing wrong but Arizona had an idea. She remembered reading something similar in a medical journal. After quickly ordering a 3D MRI, she ran back to her office with Bailey to get the article. She was going to pass the information to her colleague and then go to check on her girlfriend.

But before she found the necessary article, there it was, her girlfriend knocking on her office door.

"Hey Callie, I was about to come find you." She stopped her hands and let Bailey continue with the searching, she strode to her girlfriend by the door. "How's your dad?"

"He's in recovery. The surgery went well." The Latina gave a bitter smiler and clasped the offered hands. "He's still weak, but Teddy said he should be ok."

"That's very good." Arizona stroked Callie's hands with her thumbs gently, and turned to glance at her colleague then looked back at her girlfriend. "I have to look for some information for Bailey, can you give me a minute? Then we'll go together to see your dad afterward, okay?"

Callie nodded quietly, and followed the blonde as she entered the office and settled on the couch.

"Is your father okay?" Bailey asked with genuine concern. She didn't know the Torres gentleman, but she knew if the situation changed and it was her father in the OR, she certainly would worry to death.

"He's doing great, thank you Bailey." Callie tried her best to pull a smile to answer the shorter surgeon. "He's in the ICU. Cristina said for someone who just had an open-heart surgery, he was surprisingly vigorous."

"Ah-ha!" Arizona nodded to herself while she flipped through the journal and then stopped on the page she was looking for. Bailey leaned closer so they could read the article together. "See here, spinal nerves attached to the spine in an abnormal way. If this is the case, when Andy grows, his spine extends…"

"It's pulling his nerves the whole time… That's why he's in such pain." Bailey cut in, with a smile of realization on her face.

"That's possible. Page Shepherd to read the 3D MRI with you. If this diagnosis is right, Shepherd just needs to detach the nerve from the spine. A simple procedure can stop the pain." Arizona smiled and handed the journal to Bailey. "You can tell Andy's mom it's indeed a growing pain, just a more complicated one."

"Thank you Robbins." The general surgeon turned to exit the office, and she called over her shoulder. "You really are the best. Bye Torres."

Watching her colleague leave the office, Arizona sighed relievedly. She stopped in front of her girlfriend and then held out a hand, pulling her up to go visit Carlos. Callie took the hand but instead of standing up from the couch, she tugged the hand to pull Arizona down to sit next to her.

"I have to… I need to… um…" Callie muttered. The blonde flopped down on the couch immediately. She leaned closer to the mumbling woman and placed her free hand on the back of the couch behind Callie.

"Something wrong?" She said softly, tried to coax a coherent sentence from the brunette.

"Mom is going to transfer my dad back to Miami tomorrow." Callie dropped her gaze to the linked hands on her lap, sighed deeply.

"You want me to stop her?" Arizona raised her brows. "I can tell Teddy to convince her that it's risky to move him now. I can have the chief to talk to her…"

"No. The decision has been made." Callie shook her head tardily, still looking down at their hands. "We talked to dad. He also preferred to go back to Miami."

Arizona placed a kiss on Callie's temple trying to give her some consolation. The brunette leaned toward the touch and sighed.

"Dad's assistant contacted the insurance company. They'll send a medical flight here tomorrow morning. Teddy will do a checkup before putting him on the plane."

"If Teddy thinks it's workable then you don't have anything to worry about." Arizona lips twisted into a bitter smile. "Too bad that you don't get to spend more time with him in here."

"Arizona…" Released a deep breath, Callie raised her head to look into blue eyes. "I'm going back to Miami with my parents tomorrow."

The blonde doctor nodded. She squeezed the hand in hers, "I understand. It's good that you go with them, stay for a couple of days to make sure they settled well."

"I…" Callie bit her lips nervously. "I am going to stay longer than a couple of days."

"What do you mean?" Pink lips opened slowly as the doctor was trying to process what she just heard. Callie cut in.

"My mom and I had a talk. Well, the rip the bandage kinda fight. I didn't agree with her in a lot of ways but she was right in one thing – I had been a selfish daughter for years." The already puffy brown eyes slowly filled with tears. Arizona brought a hand to stroke the tanned cheek with her thumb. "I ran away from home for a reason, for myself. I was mad at my parents and I thought they didn't care If I was alive or dead. But I was wrong. I hurt my own father, Arizona."

"It's not your fault he's in the hospital."

"It could be." The brunette closed her eyes and sighed again.

"Callie…"

"And today I realized… my dad is getting old. He's no longer the Hercules I remembered when I was a child. We lost 7 years of time. God forbid that I may not have much of that time to spend with him…" Callie met her lover's gaze again. Sadness seeped out from the big brown eyes and Arizona realized…

"You're saying… you're going to move back to Miami?"

"I just need some time to…"

"You're going back to Miami and never coming back…" Arizona shook her head slowly as if she was still trying to process what was happening. But one thing for sure was, she didn't like it.

"Arizona, please listen to me." The brunette shifted in the couch to face her girlfriend fully. She picked up both of hands from Arizona, clasped them tightly against her own chest. "Give me three months."

Arizona still sat there dumbfounded. Wide blue eyes scanned the face in front of her trying to search any sign of prankishness. But the determination in the face told her Callie was not making joke. Her girlfriend was leaving her.

"I've thought about it. I go back to Miami for three months. I can spend time with my parents and study for the medical exam, and then I'll take the exam in Miller." Unblinking dark brown eyes looked right into her girlfriend's confused blue eyes. "I'll come back to Seattle, to you after the exam. Three months."

"Three months?" Still staring, Arizona swallowed hard. "Three months is a long time."

"I know. But we can call. We can skype. We can visit each other every other weekend, I'm sure dad doesn't mind when I use the time share." Callie forced a chuckle tried to lighten the mood. But the blonde could barely lift the corner of her lips.

"Three months, it's 90 days, 13 weeks…"

"More precisely, just 2 and a half months."

"You know what I mean." Arizona swallowed again. "Things change in a day… or even just a blink of an eye."

"Arizona, I know I have the worst track record. I ran. But I promise you, I'm not running away from anything I have now. I just… I need to fix what I broke 7 years ago."

"But what if… you change your mind? I mean, what if you don't want to be a doctor anymore and then you don't think it's necessary to come back…" Unfocused blue eyes stared at the far end of the floor as the blonde was still trying to figure out what was happening and what was going to happen. Callie reached a hand to cup the fair cheek to pull her gaze back.

"Being a doctor won't be the main reason for me to come back, Arizona. I will come back for you, you mean the world to me and I don't think I can live without you ever again." Stroking the cheek with her thumb gently, Callie continued. "But I can ensure you that I will come back with a flying color exam result. You were right, I have a gift. I could've been an amazing doctor years ago but I threw away that chance. I could be the doctor who saved someone's dad. Or like you just did, save someone's kid, and I'm going to do it."

"But… you don't need to go 3000 miles away. Here you have all your surgeon friends to help you study-" Arizona said quickly. Of course she didn't want her girlfriend to go away for months, but Callie placed a thumb on her pink lips to stop her.

"Arizona, you know once I started the internship, I won't have time for my parents. If I wanna fix our relationship, I have to do it now."

"Two and a half months." Arizona breathed out. She knew the decision had been made.

"Two and a half months. A lot of phone call, a lot of skype, travel back and forth every other weekend. We can make it." Callie leaned forward to rest her forehead against her girlfriend's. They both closed their eyes and sighed.

"You better make sure your father lets you use the time share, because I'm going to pre-order my plane tickets now."