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: Hey guys, how you doing? Thanks for coming back to this story. Super thanks to my trustful girl calzonaforever35 for helping with this chapter.

Chapter 41

"I found another source, it's on the spleen." Webber told his co-surgeon while his fingers ran over the organ gently. "There's a minor tear, 3 stitches should be enough."

"2-0 silk." Alex opened her palm, waiting for the nurse to hand him the instrument.

The chief and Alex stood on either sides of Maddy trying to stop the internal bleeding, Chang and Callie were on the left side, working on the stretched out arm to fix the broken forearm.

"This is sick." The resident sighed between suturing up the tear. "Only a real jerk could do this to a kid. Especially his own kid!"

"He's an alcoholic. It's a disease, Karev." Webber gave the resident a hard stare, but the man missed it, he was concentrated on his hands.

"I'm just saying, parenting is not for everyone. There should be some kind of laws to prevent those morons to have children, or at least make sure there's someone there to protect the innocent kids." Finished another stitch, Alex lifted his head to look around the room. "My dad was a drunk. When I was a kid, he beat me up whenever he had a bottle in hand. But when he tried to lay a hand on my little brother, do you know what I did? I chased him out of the house with a baseball bat, and that bastard never came back."

"Violence against violence is never a solution." Arizona, who was still sitting by Maddy's head, said coldly without taking her eyes away from the girl.

"At least I protected my family. What didn't Maddy's mother do?" Alex snorted, and went back to his task. "She should've ran away from that bastard. Instead, she stayed with him and just watched him kick their daughter in the air, landing on the coffee table with a broken arm and bleeding spleen."

"Mind your words, Karev." The chief warned the 3rd year resident with a firm tone. Alex glanced at the big boss and finished the suture with a knot.

"I'm just saying."

"Yes, you are just saying because you know nothing, Dr. Karev!" Arizona said through the clenched jaw. "How do you know Maddy's mother didn't do anything? Huh? She pulled out a gun to scare the man away, and ended up in the morgue!"

"I- I didn't know." Alex's brown eyes went wide and his hand stopped midway passing the instrument to the nurse. He was met with the gaze from the chief and Callie, they were full of sadness and sympathy.

"Why would you? I've told you hundreds of times not to judge the parents. You were a victim of domestic violence, I get it, and I'm sorry for you. But you can't keep berating the parents when you don't know the story behind them." Arizona kept scolding her protégé, no one in the room dared to make a peep. "And who knows what they hear subconsciously? So maybe it wouldn't hurt to concentrate on your work and stop talking about how unfit her parents were?"

"I'm sorry, Dr. Robbins." Alex threw a sheepish look toward his mentor, and followed the chief's instruction to continue the surgery in silence.

The surgery went on without anyone saying anything, until Dr. Chang started to talk to his assisting intern.

"Have you ever done an ex-fix before, Dr. Torres?"

"No, sir." Callie answered. The next, Chang passed her the drill.

"Hmm… try it."

"Seriously?" Callie asked in surprise, and the chief turned his head to look at them.

The ortho attending gave her a nod before the intern took over the tools. She followed the order and placed the tip of the drill in place.

"Yeah, right there." Chang nodded again. "The first cortex is hard, then it'll feel spongy in the middle, and then hard again when you hit the second cortex, ok?"

Callie took a deep breath and then pressed her finger to start the drill. The sound was kind of scary when she was the one managing it. She felt the resistance liked Chang described.

"That it, really push through." Chang encouraged her. Callie could feel almost every eye in the room staring at her.

"Uh, ok. It feels spongy." The brunette let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Ok, ease up a bit. Now the pitch will change when you hit the cortex, ok? Can you hear it?"

Callie didn't answer. A furrow formed between her eyebrows as she was concentrated on her hands. Most of her face was hidden under the mask, no one knew she was biting her bottom lip nervously – except her girlfriend who was watching her every move from afar.

"I hit the second cortex." The intern released the pressure on the trigger, the drill stopped.

"Good. Now back it up. Put the drill in reverse, loosing it and then pull it out." Chang nodded in approval. "For someone handling the drill for the first time, you seem calm. I'm impressed."

"Thank you, sir." Callie passed the tools back to the nurse. She smiled to the attending across the table under the mask, and couldn't help to exchange a significant glance to her girlfriend, pleased to see the blue eyes sparkling with pride.

"And you have strong hands, you'll be good in ortho." Chang looked at Callie before handing her a pin. "You would make my job much easier. You want to put in the traction pin?"

The surgery went on for hours, while Webber and Alex were fixing Maddy's abdomen, Callie was assisting Chang… actually, more liked Chang assisting Callie stabilizing the left arm.

Everything went well. The surgeons left the operating room to scrub out, but Arizona stayed by Maddy's side. It wasn't a surprise that after an hour when Callie went to check on the little girl's post-op, she found her girlfriend asleep on the uncomfortable plastic chair next to the bed.

Arizona startled when she sensed movement around her.

"How is she?" She asked in a hoarse whisper.

"She's stable." Callie closed the chart after updated the information, and then she followed the blonde's gaze to look at the sleeping girl. "She's a fighter."

"She is." Arizona sighed.

"So what is going to happen to her? I heard from Jo that the father's surgery went well too, he's in recovery." Callie went to stand next to Arizona, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "She isn't going back to her father, is she?"

"I've talked to the police, they are going to put charges on him for assaulting his daughter and killing his wife." Arizona's eyes never left the face of the sleeping girl. "And even if he could get away from the murder, the evidence of child abuse is crystal clear. He won't be able to gain the custody of Maddy any day soon."

"Then what is going to happen to her?" Callie dropped her eyes to stare at the blonde. Arizona finally looked up.

"We contacted social services, they'll send someone here tomorrow morning." The rim around the blue eyes was reddish and puffy, no doubt that Arizona was on the verge of tears. Callie brought her hand to caress that silklike face tenderly.

"You're tired. Go home, get some rest."

Arizona pulled the corner of her lips to a bitter smile. She took Callie's hand in hers and looked back to Maddy.

"She had no one. I don't want her to wake up alone."

"You know she's under meds and won't be awake until the morning." Callie tugged their linked hand for Arizona's attention. "Arizona, there's nothing much you can do in here now. And you need a decent sleep to deal with the work tomorrow. You have patients that need you."

"It's fine, I will sleep on the chair." The blonde dropped her hand to pull the chair closer to the bed so she could hunch over the bed when she needed. But of course Callie wouldn't let her do that. She looped her hands around Arizona's arm to pull the woman up.

"I'm going to take a nap in an on-call room. You come with me."

"Callie…" Arizona tried to protest, but the brunette already pulled her up on her feet.

"Don't make me call security." Callie joked. Her smirk turned into a sincere stare after she was met with the frown on the blonde's face. "Arizona, please, I don't want you overtire yourself. Just a couple of hours lying in bed, please?"

Sighed heavily, Arizona followed her girlfriend to the on-call room on the peds floor unwillingly. Callie turned to lock the door while Arizona kicked off her shoes and settled in bed.

Taking off the shoes and the baggy scrub top, Callie slipped under the blanket lying next to the blonde. She slept on her side and had a hand prop her head up, while gazing at the woman who was staring at the ceiling unblinkingly.

"I don't want to sleep." After a minute, Arizona finally shifted her gaze to her girlfriend.

"Give it a moment." Callie whispered. She leaned down to place a soft kiss on Arizona's forehead. "You have to clear your mind."

"I- I can't." Arizona rubbed her face with both hands. "I know I shouldn't be so emotionally attached to Maddy, but… I don't know, I really feel bad for her."

"I understand that." Callie brushed the golden bang off of the face before her, looking deeply into blue eyes. "I know how special this girl is to you. I still remember the first time her mom brought her to the ER."

"You do? You weren't there." Arizona lifted her head off the pillow to look at her girlfriend, but Callie pushed her back down gently.

"It was that day I came back from Miami to surprise you. You were so upset and I just happened to come back to you."

"Like you knew I needed you." Arizona chuckled lightly, bringing a smile to Callie's face.

"And the second time was right before our first fight." Callie leaned down to peck the pink lips and pulled back to look at her woman. She picked up Arizona's hand to lace their fingers together.

"I just… Alex was right, you know?" Arizona knit her brows together and stared at the ceiling again. "Parenting is not for everyone. There are a lot people trying to do whatever they can to have a baby, to love them and cherish them. Like Addison, Joe and Walter. But for somebody, having a child just for fun, they don't think about the responsibility and consequences. They're just too selfish to love."

"It's hard." Callie nodded. "Especially if they aren't strong enough. Maddy's father is an alcoholic, he can't control himself."

"After the last time, I thought the mother was going to leave him. We had a brief talk after Maddy's surgery, I told her to consider what's worth to protect, the marriage with that man, or her daughter. Apparently, she chose the man." Arizona sighed heavily. "And she chose poorly."

Not knowing what to say, Callie picked up the linked hands and placed a soft kiss on the back of Arizona's.

"Do you know? The talk with Mrs. Carlson was the reason George finally signed the divorce paper." Arizona tilted her head to face the brunette, who squinted at her in surprise.

"Seriously? How?"

"We were talking about the marriage, protecting the person that really matters, and letting go when it's time… things like that. And when I left the room, George was there, it seemed he was eavesdropping outside the room." The blonde said quietly. Callie loss her frown and laid down the bed with her head next to the blonde head.

"Typical George."

"Days later, he came to my office, and we had a little talk." Arizona glanced at her girlfriend from the corner of her eyes. She didn't tell Callie about that meeting. No matter how much she pried, Arizona refused to tell her what made the man change his mind and just signed the paper.

"You talked him out?" Callie turned in the bed and propped her head up again, a smirk in the corner of her lips. "You said you weren't going to meddle between me and George."

"I didn't meddle." Arizona rolled her eyes. "He had the paper signed before coming to me, he decided to let go. Like what I said to Mrs. Carlson."

"Why didn't you tell me this?" Callie asked. Arizona sighed and smiled in wry modesty.

"Because, we had an uncomfortable conversation."

"What? He said something to you?" A furrow quickly formed between the well shaped eyebrows. Looking at the blonde, Callie bolted up from the bed and about to go down to the pit, track down the tiny man so she could rip his stupid head off by her bare hands.

"Nope," Arizona laughed and pulled the woman back down to lay next to her. "He just asked me something that I didn't want to answer. He wanted me to tell him that I loved you, and promise him that I will never hurt you."

Callie couldn't help but laugh at that picture in her head, the usual bashful man demanded a promise from his boss. A light slap landed on her shoulder playfully.

"Stop it. He was serious." Arizona snuggled closer, entwined their arms and laid her head on Callie's shoulder. "He loved you so much that he was willing to let you go, that's noble."

"I'm glad he did." Callie turned her head to kiss the top of the blonde head. "But I'm telling you, I am not a noble person. I will never let go of you, no matter what happenes."

"Even if I turned into a drunk, unbearable wife and horrible mother?" Arizona closed her eyes and smiled contentedly when Callie laced their fingers again and answered firmly.

"Even if you turned into a drunk, unbearable wife and horrible mother."

They laid there in silent. Slowly, Arizona found herself getting more relaxed and the exhaustion kicked in. She let out a yawn before whispered to her girlfriend.

"Thanks for being here with me."

"Always." Callie kissed the blonde one more time, and then followed the blonde to sleep on her side, so she could spoon her love from behind.

Arizona felt herself drifting into sleep within Callie's embrace. Suddenly, a mumble from behind pulled her back out.

"Have I told you lately that I love you…" Callie sang in a whisper.

"Hmmm…?"

"Have I told you there's no one else above you…" The humming continued. Arizona swiveled her head to the sound.

"What are you doing?" The blonde asked in a whisper as well.

"I want to sing you to sleep," Callie leaned forward to place a kiss on the pink lips, and tugged their bodies closer. "Just close your eyes."

Arizona chuckled lightly, and pressed her back to the curvy body behind her, wearing a smile as she slowly fell asleep under the voice of her lover's.

Fill my heart with gladness,
Take away all my sadness,
Ease my troubles that's what you do.

"Hey Jo, thanks for covering my shift." Callie walked up to her intern friend, who was standing by the nurse station next to her resident.

"No biggie." Jo whispered back with a broad smile on her face. "Just don't forget our deal."

"What deal?" Alex interrupted without looking up from the chart, apparently Jo's whisper wasn't that quiet.

"Oh, I promised to throw a party for Jo next week, in The Horizon." Callie answered with a smile, missing the silent glare from the younger intern.

"A party?" The resident finally looked at them with raised eyebrows, parties got his attention.

"Jo's birthday." Callie said without missing a beat. Finally she noticed the glare from Jo. "What?"

"Cool. I won't pass on a free drink, let me know which day." Alex winked at Callie, and then picked up the chart as he saw the head of peds just turned the corner toward them. They shared a look and then strode in Maddy's room together.

"Why did you tell him about the party?" Jo elbowed her friend on her hip, made the brunette jumped.

"I didn't know it was a secret." Callie looked back at Jo in confused. The two stood by the door, away from their superiors.

"Not a secret, just… I don't want that douche bag at my birthday party." Jo pouted. Before Callie could answer, Alex turned and said to them with annoyance.

"You're here to learn, not to chitchat. Save it until your toilet break if you may."

The duo bit their lips and concentrated on the resident's presentation.

Normally, it was a briefing for the patient or their family, so they would have an idea what had been done in the surgery and what they might need to concern. However, the haunting melancholy among the room was too thick to shake off. The 7 years old patient was too young to understand a word from the doctors when they talked about broken forearm and hairline fracture on her rib, or tears on her spleen and pancreas. And most of all, she had no one by her side to care about all this.

After Alex finished checking the incision, Arizona stepped to the other side of the bed, helped straighten the gown and covered Maddy back under the blanket. The girl had a pout on her face all along.

"Maddy, are you still in pain? As bad as this morning?" The blonde stroked the light brown hair softly, her eyes drifted to the IV bag hanging by the bed. She was there in the earlier morning when Maddy woke up, and she had issued the proper dose of pain meds to minimize the discomfort after surgery.

Maddy shook her head. The words came out of the trembled lips made every adult in the room paused awkwardly.

"Dr. Zona, where is my mommy?"

Arizona glanced at the ceiling. Truth to be told, she never had to deliver this kind of news to her patients, she didn't know how to tell the poor little girl that her mommy was never coming back to her again.

"She was lying on the floor… She told me not to sleep on the floor… but she was there and there was a lot of blood." Giant tears rolled down the chubby cheeks slowly. "I was crying but she didn't wake up... She's dead, isn't she?"

The blonde took a deep breath and tried her best to blink back the tears. She tugged the corner of her lips to a bitter smile, and used her thumb to wipe away the tears on Maddy's face.

"She is, Maddy. Mommy isn't going to come back to you. But you know what? She has become an angel and is going to protect you from heaven."

For minutes, the only sound in the room was Maddy's cry and the soft words of comfort coming from Arizona. She climbed to the bed to hold the girl tightly around the shoulders, the tiny head buried in her neck and soaked the scrub top. The interns and the resident were forgotten but they didn't say a word, just watching the blonde doctor hold the distraught girl until the sobs had subsided.

One of the nurses poked her head into the room. She was looking for Dr. Robbins, and she let out a sympathetic sigh after found that pitiful sight in the room. Alex noticed her and questioned.

"The chief is looking for Dr. Robbins. The social worker is here." The nurse answered. Arizona gave her a nod.

"Maddy, I have to go for a while…" The blonde tried to pull away, but the death grasp in the front of her scrub said that the girl didn't want her to leave. "Maddy, you will be fine in here, ok? I have something I need to deal with, I promise you I'll come back as soon as I can, ok?"

"No!" The girl screamed, and the tears had quickly glazed in the big brown eyes again.

After several more soft words attempted to settle down the little girl failed, Callie walked closer to the bed standing behind Arizona. She brushed off the hair on the little face to gain the attention from the girl.

"Honey, Dr. Zona has to work. How about I stay here with you? I promise you I'm here the whole day, I'm not going anywhere. And when Dr. Zona comes back, you'll have the two of us here with you?"

Teary brown eyes stared at the brunette doctor. She remembered Dr. Callie was there last night, and she remembered Dr. Callie made the pain go away. And Dr. Callie was there in the morning when she woke up, together with Dr. Zona… She liked Dr. Callie.

The hold on the navy scrub top loosened, Arizona stood up from the bed slowly, and when she stood face to face to her girlfriend, she asked in a small voice.

"Are you sure, Callie? Your shift is over, you should go home…"

"Shh… I don't mind. Now you go to the chief, I'll take care of Maddy." Callie placed a quick kiss on Arizona's cheek before she remembered there were other people in the room. Pulling away awkwardly, the intern sat down on the bed, holding Maddy's good hand with hers. "Go. We'll be fine."

After one last look at her girlfriend and the girl, Arizona left the room with Alex and Jo behind her.

Arriving in the chief's office, Arizona found there was a woman waiting for her.

"Hi Dr. Robbins, I'm Janice, I'm gonna be Maddy Carlson's case worker." The two shook hands, and then both sat down on the chairs by the desk, opposite of Webber. "So, how is Maddy?"

"She is alert. We found no complications after the surgery." Arizona reached to the side of the desk, poured herself a glass of water and continued. "She just asked me about her mother. I couldn't lie to her."

"I see." Janice nodded and opened her notebook. "How did she take it?"

"She cried for a while." The peds surgeon sighed after swallowed the water. "Callie, an intern is staying with her."

"Torres?" Webber cut in. "I thought her shift finished an hour ago."

"Yes, and uh… she wants to stay to help." Arizona answered timidly, taking another sip of water.

"Ok, I've told Chief Webber the situation, but I'm going to repeat it to you, Dr. Robbins." Janice pulled out a piece of paper from her folder and started. "Mr. Carlson is hospitalized. But even if he wasn't, he won't be able to approach Maddy because of the charges. We had contacted Mrs. Carlson's next of kin, her father. He's in Sacramento."

"Oh, so Maddy could go to her grandfather?" A hopeful smile displayed on Arizona's face. But Janice shook her head.

"Mr. Lerner is in no condition of taking care of Maddy. He is 68 years old and had a stroke recently. Actually Mrs. Carlson and Maddy went to stay with him briefly after Maddy was attacked the last time. They were there for a month until Mr. Carlson went there to claim his family back."

"So Mrs. Carlson did run away from her husband…" Arizona signed heavily.

"Yes, but it didn't last long. She came home after Mr. Carlson made all sort of promises, again. Mr. Lerner said he didn't trust the man, so he gave his daughter a gun before they came back to Seattle. He wanted to give her something to protect herself and Maddy, turned out it became her murder weapon."

"Then what is going to happen to Maddy?" The blonde asked after a moment of silence. She ran a hand through her hair and frowned.

"I've contacted several foster homes, but due to Maddy's condition – both physically and mentally, people are cautious. They are afraid Maddy would be a handful." Janice looked between Arizona and the chief, "Chief Webber told me Maddy would be hospitalized for 2 weeks, it gives me time to contact several more homes. The worst case scenario, there are couples of group house that I can settle Maddy in."

Back in Maddy's room, Arizona found the little girl sound asleep in bed, and her girlfriend was on the plastic chair, staring at the small TV which was playing some cartoon, but her mind was surely elsewhere.

"You told me you didn't like cartoons." Arizona laughed lightly as she walked in the room, startling the brunette, almost making her spill the coffee she was holding.

"I don't want to change the channel, in case Maddy wakes up and wants to see the child programs." Callie put the coffee cup behind her on the bedside cabinet, tilted her head to accept the soft kiss from the blonde.

"Thank you for staying with her. You didn't have to." Arizona smiled after their lips parted. She reached for Callie's hand to pull her on her feet, led her to the couch by the window.

"I really didn't mind." Callie sat down next to the blonde and laced their hands together. "And I understand why you like this girl so much. She is a sweetheart. The poor thing…"

"I know. I still remember the first time she was here. You should've seen her eyes when she said she needed to protect her mother." Arizona chuckled with a bitter smile.

"So? What did the social worker say?"

"Maddy has a grandfather, but he won't be able to take care of her." Arizona stopped and looked over to Maddy. "They're going to put her in a foster home, or a group house."

"My gosh! She can't catch a break, can she?" The brunette frowned deeply and shook her head.

"And according to Janice, the social worker, she said it won't be easy to get a foster home for Maddy. Seeing her mother got killed in front of her would do a number on her, people would be scared to keep her." Arizona said with a shrug. "I could understand that though.

"That's just not fair. She is such a good kid." Callie gazed over to the bed. After crying for a while, and added in the medication she received, the girl was sleeping peacefully.

"So… Callie, I have something in mind. It's a crazy idea…" Arizona wet her lips. "I have something to ask you."

A/N: The song Callie was humming in Arizona's ear was "Have I told you lately", I was obsessed with this song for a while, but not the hoarse version from Rod Stewart. Look up the one from Olivia Ong in youtube, you won't regret it.