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 : Hi my friends, here's a new chapter, hope you still enjoy it.
Thanks to the always amazing calzonaforever35, glad you like where I'm heading to ;-)
Chapter 45
Callie stretched her arms before opening her eyes to glance at the alarm on the night stand. It was barely 5am but she felt well rested. Why wouldn't she? When she dragged her exhausted body out of the hospital after another 36 hours shift, the shift that spent at least 30 hours on her feet running around on the cardio floor, she didn't even have enough energy to put on her pajamas after shedding everything off of her body. The moment her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light.
Turning her head to the side, a smile found its way to her face when she saw the mess of blonde hair poking out from the blanket. She didn't even know when Arizona got home.
It was a hell of a week for Callie. Ever since Erica appeared in SGMW, she managed to get both Cristina and Callie on her service. Apparently Teddy put down good words about the two, so the new cardio attending demanded to have the resident and intern working closely with her. The Asian was ecstatic. She scrubbed in surgery after surgery behind the attending. Even though her job was just standing on the side suctioning, there wasn't any other place she wanted to be other than being so close to an open chest, staring at a beating heart.
However, it wasn't the same for Callie. When her resident was asked to scrub in, the intern was ordered to stay behind, monitoring the post-ops, running labs and scans. The closest she got to be in any OR was to stick her head in reporting to the ones who were holding the scalpels about the update of another patient.
The instructions were placed by her resident, but she knew they were coming from the higher level. Callie was in cardio for a whole week, other than the occasional hard glare she received when they were in the patient's room together, Erica hadn't said a word to her.
She knew she deserved it. She wanted to talk to her ex-girlfriend, try to give the woman her belated apology. But Erica didn't give her the chance. As soon as the talk with the patient was over, Erica would run out of the room instantly, or told Cristina to order her intern to go away and do some work.
It wasn't too bad though. Deep down, Callie wasn't sure she was ready to face Erica alone, yet.
The frustration plus the heavy workload from work totally weighed on the brunette's shoulders. The 2 nights this week that she was able to sleep on her own bed, she was dead to the world. Even when she was in the hospital, she had no more than 5 minutes per day to say hi to her girlfriend.
Callie's smile grew wider when she thought about how lucky she was to have such an understanding girlfriend. The lack of contact didn't raise any complaints from the blonde. Instead, she found a constant coffee supply around her. Not the regular kind but the good one coming from her favorite coffee cart; along with candies, energy bars, and pound cakes filling her locker when she went in for a change of scrubs.
Unable stop herself, Callie rolled over to cuddle the sleeping blonde beauty from behind. She snuck her hands around the slim waist, and buried her face in the crook of the creamy neck before letting out a content, satisfied sigh of having the soft body in her arms again.
As a light sleeper, Arizona was startled when she felt the warm body press against her back.
"Callie?"
The brunette kissed her neck as a reply.
"How are you feeling?" Arizona's said in her sleepy voice, sinking deeper into her girlfriend's curvy body with a groan.
"I feel loved." Callie tightened her hands, and rested her chin on Arizona's shoulder to press their heads together.
"What?" Still in her sleeping haze, the blonde tried to turn her head, wanting to look at the woman behind her through her half opened eyes, but stopped when she felt soft cheek rub against her neck. The intimate touch made her feel all warm and fuzzy.
"I love you." Callie whispered, as one of her hand ghosted along Arizona's arm to find the smaller and slimmer hand, then entwined their fingers together and pulled them against the small spoon's chest. "It's still early, go back to sleep. I just wanted to be closer to you and hear your breathing."
Arizona closed her eyes, wearing a smile then drifted off to sleep again.
The smile remained on her face even when she stepped in the hospital hours later.
She knew very well that this would happen the day Callie decided to go back to medicine. She was an intern once and she knew how hectic it could be. The first few months weren't so bad because the attendings in this hospital were being gentle to the interns. What can she say? They were a group of nice people, how couldn't they take pity on those newbies in the game?
"Hey, you look perkier than usual." A voice coming from behind startled her inner thought. Arizona rolled her eyes before turning to the side to greet the man now standing next to her. He placed his coffee order and then glanced at his friend with a lopsided smile. "You got some last night, huh?"
"No. Callie was already passed out in bed when I got home." Arizona picked up her coffee, and stepped to the side to season her beverage without looking at Mark. "Sometimes, simply snuggling in bed can do wonders too. You know, when you feel so strong with someone, it's not just about sex."
Mark crinkled his nose with a grimace.
"That's love, and you'd never understand, my manwhore friend." The blonde patted the tall man's shoulder with a chuckle. The pair walked side by side across the hospital lobby after Mark got his drink.
"Well, Lexie and I are not the snuggling in bed kind of people." Mark sipped his coffee. "Where's Callie anyway?"
"She has the day off." Arizona sighed lightly. "I couldn't reschedule my surgeries. I have a heart and lung transplant today."
"With Hahn?" Mark stopped dead in his tracks, looking at Arizona with wide eyes. The blonde nodded her head. "Is it the first time you two are in a surgery together?"
She nodded again. Mark smirked and was about to give his smart ass comment, but Arizona stopped him.
"Don't start. What Callie and Dr. Hahn had is history. It won't affect our work. We are professionals." Arizona wriggled her index finger in front of the man. "And I suggest you do the same. Be a professional. Make her feel welcome here. Stop calling her names behind her back."
"Hey, first of all, it wasn't me who started to call her 'the mean witch'. You should see how she treats Cristina. The poor woman was doing suction the whole week even though she is able to do more than that." Mark snorted and continued to walk along with his friend. "And she doesn't want to blend in, it isn't my fault. Derek and I offered to take her to The Horizon for a drink a few nights ago. She was so condescending, like going out with us would damage her street cred."
"Mark..." Arizona trailed off, but she was distracted when her star resident ran pass her. "Hey Karev!"
Alex halted abruptly when he heard the voice of his boss. He turned around sheepishly, but his head kept swiveling around like he was searching for someone.
"We have a transplant in an hour, have you checked with the patient?" Arizona asked as she walked forward slowly, but the man was backing away from her.
"I... I am... I will, in a sec." Still looking around, finally his gaze fixed on someone coming down the stairs. "I will do the pre-op in 5 minutes."
"Karev!" Arizona called again, but the man already took off running up the stairs.
"Maybe Hahn was right." Mark bumped his shoulder against the PEDS surgeon, his eyes following the young resident. "We are too close with those residents. They don't think they have to respect us anymore."
"He respects me." Arizona looked to the same direction as Mark, watching Alex approached a pair of interns in the middle of the stairway. "He just has something more important to deal with first, it seems."
The resident stopped in front of Leah and Heather. The duo were deep in a conversation but Leah's attention diverted to the man quickly when she found him standing there looking at her. A giant smile spread across her face in a split second.
"Alex! I'd been trying to find you for days. I've called you, paged you. I even wandered around in PEDS floor hoping to see you. They just told me you were busy." Leah took a step forward, looking at Alex with her lovey-dovey eyes, totally missing the awkward smile from her friend standing next to her.
"I... we need to... I have to tell you something." Alex scratched his head with one hand, the other on his hip, glancing between the two women disconcertedly.
"Oh, I'll leave you two..." Heather took the sign, about to turn around but Alex stopped her.
"No, Heather you too. I need to talk to both of you. Glad that you two are here, save me some time to say it twice... well, from the many other talks I have this morning."
The two interns shared a puzzled look, and then turned to stare at the bashful man at the same time. Alex placed both hands on his hips, and took a deep breath before opened his mouth.
"I have syphilis. I already got a shot, you two should probably go get tested and... well, get a shot as well."
Doctors were running around, nurses were busy doing their jobs on the desks and visitors were rushing to go see their hospitalized relatives or friends... Everyone stopped what they were doing when a scream rang through the hospital lobby.
"You slept with my friend?! And you gave me syphilis?!"
"You are a dog, Karev." Arizona glanced to the side when she found the resident entering the scrub room.
"Shut up." Alex murmured under his breath, starting to scrub with his head hung low.
"I'm an attending. I'm your boss. You can't tell me to shut up." Arizona turned her head to face the sheepish looking man. "Especially when I'm right, you're a bad dog."
"Oh please, no freaking way you get to judge me." Alex twisted his lips. He knew it was a low blow and he shouldn't talk to his boss like this, but he already got enough scolding from the nurses and interns that he had to deliver the news to, and the judgments from his resident friends. He thought he may at least get some understanding from the blonde. "You were screwing the nurses in the hospital like 2 weeks ago..."
The door to the scrub room opened and the main surgeon entered behind her, but Arizona was so offended by the accusation coming from the man to notice it.
"It was 2 years ago, and I didn't spread syphilis all over the place. For the love of God, you are a doctor, what were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking, ok?" Alex lowered his voice when he saw the new comer joining them to scrub in. Arizona sensed the shadow beside her, and turned to nod to the new colleague. Erica just returned with a tight smile.
The conversation between the PEDS surgeons stopped temporary as they walked in the OR. It was a heart and lung transplant on a 12 year old. Erica Hahn was the lead surgeon and Arizona was on the other side of the table to assist. A couple of other surgeons in the hospital had worked with Erica and they all gave positive comments about the new cardio attending. As a surgeon, Arizona was thrilled to get to see it first hand.
Hours in the surgery went by, after several failed attempts to make small talk with the quiet cardio surgeon, the PEDS duo kinda fell into their own conversation out of habit.
"So, did anyone of the girls slap you after you told them?" Arizona asked without lifting her head from the open chest, but everyone knew who she was asking.
"What do you think?" She got a glare of annoyance in return. After a while, Alex continued. "I don't get it. You and Sloan... never got this kind of drama. Why me?"
"Because we don't treat people like a piece of meat. You need to learn how to respect people." Although half of her face was hidden under the mask, it could easily hear the sneer in her voice.
"They knew what they were getting into when they followed me into the on-call room." Alex murmured. He didn't need to look up to know that several nurses in the room were glaring at him.
"Are you sure?" Arizona said after she rotated the heart slightly so Erica could get a better vision to know what she needed to do next. "According to what I've heard, through Leah Murphy you two were more than just a quick gathering in an on-call room."
"We hooked up a couple times, and she stuck to me like glue. That girl goes from zero to I love you in 7 seconds." Alex leaned closer to the open chest to get a better view. He missed the ice cold glance from the surgeon across the table.
"Maybe that's what you need. At some point, you need to grow up, try to get a real relationship." Arizona turned her head to glance at the resident while taking an instrument handed to her. Her voice perked up with her own idea. "Murphy adores you. As you said, she loves you. Give it a try. If it doesn't work out, you can move on."
"Was that why you were with Colleen? Give it a try? And the minute Torres came to town, you moved on and dumped her like some leftover Chinese food?" Frustration got the best of Alex, at this point, the man forgot they had an audience around them, and who he was talking to. "Oh please, like you're the one to give some relationship advice."
Little did they know, mentioning Callie got the attention from someone in the room.
"Colleen and I were never a thing. We had an understanding and I didn't dump her." The PEDS surgeon's brows knitted together. The thing between her and Colleen was like a million years ago, she didn't think Alex would choose this moment to bring it up again. "And whatever Colleen and I had, it had ended way before Callie and I get together."
"That girl went nuts and cut Chang's palm during a surgery. You called that an understanding?" Alex snorted loudly, but he stopped when he was met with the angry stare from his boss.
"I don't have to explain anything to you, Dr. Karev." Arizona said coldly. "My advice to you, stop being a jerk. Find a nice girl who loves you, settle down and be a man."
The surgery went on soundlessly. Arizona was pissed at her resident and Alex knew he crossed the line. He planned to apologize to his mentor after the surgery but Arizona was paged to an emergency before they closed up the patient.
Shortly after the consult that dragged her out of the surgery, Arizona was sitting in her office, sipping coffee and had the cellphone next to her ear.
"Alex has syphilis." She knew she shouldn't, but she found herself laughing into the phone.
"What?" Callie exclaimed, almost dropping the pan she was holding.
"He was running around in the hospital, telling the people he had slept with to go get tested." The blonde chuckled. "You should've seen Murphy's face. I don't know which one shocked her the most, Alex maybe giving her syphilis, or he had sex with Brooks too."
"Poor girl. I'd warned her in the beginning, she just didn't want to listen." Callie shook her head, continuing her task to put the kitchen wares back in place. "Hey, do I need to get tested?"
"Very funny. You know there is no one else in my life now." Arizona rolled her eyes. "Unless you are having some fun behind my back."
"Well, I was planning to, but you were too sleepy this morning." Callie laughed out, referring their cuddle session in the dawn.
"I'll make it up to you tonight." Arizona said with a smile. And she heard some banging on the other side of the phone. "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning up the kitchen." The brunette answered. "I'm bored out of my mind. I went to the park with Maddie this morning, went to the grocery store, just finished cleaning up the kitchen, and about to start making dinner for tonight."
"It's your day off, you should get some rest." Arizona sighed, reaching out to grab her pager on the desk when it went off. She said absent-mindedly while checking the page. "You make your day as busy as at work."
"Do you have to go?" Callie heard the sound of the pager. She twisted her lips, looked around the foods she had on the counter. "Should I put the food in the fridge?"
"It's the chief. He asked to meet with the attendings in 15 minutes." Arizona pursed her lips. It's not normal for the chief to hold an emergency meeting at this hour. "Knowing how busy he is, I don't think the meeting will be long. I should be home in an hour."
Before Callie could respond, there was a knock on the door.
"Hey, there's someone at the door, I have to get that." Arizona covered the cell with a hand briefly. "Come in."
"Ok, I'll let you go then. Love you." Callie's answer brought a smile on the blonde's face. She said without missing a beat.
"Love you too. See you at home."
Raising her head after pressing end on the cellphone, to her surprise, it was Erica outside her office.
"Dr. Hahn, can I help you?" Arizona tuned down her dimpled smile to a polite work smile. "Is there anything wrong with the patient?"
"The patient is doing great, Dr. Robbins." Erica retained her emotionless expression, staring at the other doctor in the room. "May I come in?"
"Sure. Please come in, have a seat." The PEDS surgeon waved her hand, gesturing the chairs in front of her.
Erica entered with the door still opened. Instead of taking a seat, she stood there with her hands in the lab coat pockets, surveying the room with her cold blue eyes. And her gaze fixed on the photo frame sitting on the side of the desk. It was a picture of the PEDS surgeon kissing the cheek of her girlfriend when the other was looking at the camera. They both wore a bright smile.
Arizona's smile turned to a frown when she followed the intruder to look at the picture. She asked again.
"Dr. Hahn, can I help you?"
"I care about Callie." Erica cocked her head slightly, looking down at the woman in her seat. "I don't know how much she told you about our past. I don't know if she told you what had happened with her family that drove her away from me."
"I think I've heard..." Arizona squinted at the tall blonde, not knowing where it was going.
"She was young and confused. I don't really blame her for leaving. I know how intimidating her father can be." Erica continued, not letting Arizona interrupt her. "I still care about Callie. No matter how mad I am at her."
"Ok..." Arizona trailed off. "That's great. Callie would be relieved to know that."
"She has the biggest heart in the world. And she trusts people easily." Still staring at Arizona, Erica said thought her gritting teeth. "She is not another notch on your bedpost."
"Excuse me?" Arizona jumped up from her chair with her mouth agape.
"A week in here and I've already heard more things about you than I want to. You're a shameless player..." The cardio surgeon crinkled her nose in disgust.
"Whoa whoa whoa, hang on a second." Arizona held up her hands to stop the woman before her. "I don't have to explain myself to you. There are a lot of things going on and you don't know anything about me, or Callie."
"I've seen enough. The flirtation between you and Mark Sloan," Erica snorted. "And God knows what is happening with you and your resident. You should leave Callie alone before you give her any sort of STD!"
"Dr. Hahn! I've said it once, and I'll say it again. I don't have to explain anything to you about me and my girlfriend." Arizona's eyes widened with anger. If they weren't separated by the desk, she probably would've shoved the woman against the wall. "I'm glad that you're care about her, and I'm sure she would be happy if you two could be friends again. But you're crossing the line here."
Furious blue eyes stared at ice cold blue, none of them were going to back down. A knock on the door broke their moment before anyone said anything more.
"Hi blondie!" Mark chose this time to poke his head into Arizona's office. Erica had her back to the man that he totally missed the sneer on her face that made Arizona's rage skyrocket. "Oh, Dr. Hahn you're here. I was checking up on the patient down the hall and came to pick you up for the chief's meeting. I'll see you in the conference room then."
Erica turned her head slightly, watching the man walk away from the corner of her eyes. She snorted again before smiling at Arizona scornfully.
"I will get her back." The cardio surgeon said with confidence. "I was her first. She loved me and she walked away from her family for me. I was there to support her, held her and loved her when her parents turned their backs to her. I was there for her and I'm here for her now. I won't let you hurt her."
"I won't hurt her." Arizona took a deep breath to calm herself down. She vividly remembered that night when Callie told her why she left Miami, Erica was one of the factors that the brunette wanted to leave everything behind. She wanted to pop this little bubble Erica wrapped around her memory with Callie so badly, but she knew it was not her story to tell and it may just sound bitter coming from her mouth now.
"You are hurting her. She's working here. She's working in a place with the numerous amount of people that had sex with you. She takes a nap in an on-call room and probably is one of the many rooms that you got nasty with one of your sluts. Do you think she's ok with that?" Erica cocked her head high. She smirked lightly when the steadfastness in the PEDS surgeon's gaze started to shake. "And do you think you can resist the temptation when someone new comes in your way? Just like you did with that nurse, Colleen?"
Erica threw another sneer toward the stunning blonde before turning around to leave the room. She said what she wanted to say, and now, she needed to do what she wanted to do.
Arizona stood in her office pondering what just had happened. Erica's words ringing in her head. Not that she would think there will be someone out there makes her break up with Callie, not in a million years. Or bothered by the censures about her and Mark, and Alex. Everyone knew what they had were sibling love.
But did it upset Callie about being in a work place with several of her... old flings? They didn't really talk about it, and she didn't really think about it. Callie was all excited about starting her internship. Then then Maddie happened, and then Erica appeared. They were so busy that didn't even have time to sit down, have a conversation in a while.
Having her brows knit together deeply, she found her way to the conference room for the chief's surprise meeting. Looking around, all her navy blue scrubs wearing colleagues were already there. Mark saved her a seat by the table as usual, and Erica was sitting directly across from the man with her phone in hand. Sighing heavily, not in the mood of facing Erica again, she decided to stay in the back of the room, leaning against the wall next to Owen Hunt.
"Ok, thank you all for coming. I know you're all busy, so this won't take long." Webber said as he entering the door. All heads turned and followed the man while he walked to the head of the table. Mark noticed his friend, tilted his head gestured to the empty seat next to him but Arizona just shook her head. A momentary glimpse to the other side of the table, she locked her jaw while meeting with Erica's sneer.
"As some of you may have heard, a couple of our staffs are infected with syphilis." The chief unfolded the paper in his hand and stared at it with a furrow on his forehead. "The number is counting and right now, we have 12 confirmed."
The room startled. Webber shook his head angrily and fisted the paper into a ball.
"This, is unacceptable. The board has just approved a new non-fraternization policy. This hospital has to be a safe work environment where our focus remains clearly on providing the best patient care possible. Moving forward, all relationships with co-workers will be discouraged. Any sexual encounter within the four walls of the hospital between couples or acquaintances is strictly prohibited." He took out a memo from the folder and held it high. "A copy of the new rules will be given to every staff member tomorrow. I need you all to arrange meetings to go over the details with your subordinates. Guide them and make sure they know this is serious. We can't have another syphilis outbreak, or a potential sexual harassment complaint."
The attendings were startled again. Webber held up his hands with a stone cold face.
"The decision has been made, things are gonna be different from here on in. Every lock in the on-call room will be removed tonight. The on-call rooms are for napping, not for anything that requires a locked door."
Before anyone could raise their question, the chief bolted out of the room to his other meeting.
"So are you going to tell Callie?" Mark said to the shorter blonde as they walked in the elevator. He pressed 5 to their floor before turned to look at Arizona. "The things Hahn said to you?"
"No, it's not really necessary." Arizona shrugged, staring at the metal door deep in her thoughts.
"Why not? You should tell her that woman basically called you a whore." The man cast an irritated glanced at his friend. He was angry for his friend. "And implying there's something going on between you and me? Is she crazy?"
"I won't take that too serious." She shrugged again and gave Mark a smile, but it didn't really reach her eyes. "She doesn't know anything about me."
"Even though she said she's going to get Callie back?" The elevator arrived at their floor, Mark holding the door open to let Arizona get out first. "Aren't you worried about that?"
"There's nothing to worry about, Mark." A genuine smile finally found the way on Arizona's face ever since Erica went to her office. "Callie is not a book, or a toy. Erica can't just come in and claim to get Callie back. We are in a relationship and we love each other."
"Fine. Just remember, I'll be there for you whenever you decided to have a bitch fight with that woman." Mark smirked while using his key to unlock his apartment. "And now, I have to tell Lexie that we're 'discouraged' by the new rule of the hospital. Let's hope she won't freak out and break up with me again."
"Thanks, and good luck." Arizona held up her crossed fingers in front of the tall man, they exchanged a smile and then she walked toward her own apartment.
Soft music and aroma of roast chicken filled the air when she opened the door. She threw her bag on the floor next to the door carelessly, the sound of it caused the person laying on the couch startle.
"Sorry honey, I didn't know you were sleeping." Arizona walked toward the living room with a smile. Callie was stretching on the couch with a hand rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"It's fine. I just dozed off from reading a book." She held up the book on her chest, then put it on the coffee table. "Dinner should be ready, are you hungry?"
"I'm starving, but I want this first." The blonde sat down on the edge of the couch. Callie was about to sit up to give her more space but Arizona put a hand on her shoulder, slowly leaned forward to kiss her girlfriend tenderly on the lips. They melted into each other for a while until the kitchen timer buzzed to indicate that dinner was indeed ready.
Arizona held out a hand to pull the laying woman up on her feet. She led the way to the kitchen and found the plates were already set on the breakfast bar. She let go of Callie's hand and walked around the counter, but Callie stopped her by grasping her hips from behind.
"Where are you going?" Callie asked.
"Get us a drink, and serve the food?" Arizona turned her head to the side, trying to look at Callie and she got a quick kiss on the cheek.
"No, you are not. Sit your pretty ass on the stool, I'll serve dinner."
A big grin across her face when she settled on the stool, watching her girlfriend take out a bottle of wine from the fridge.
"What have I done to owe this pleasure, my lovely lady?" Arizona propped her head up by an elbow on the breakfast bar, not even bothering to hide her dreamy smile when her gaze fixated on the cleavage under the loosened top when Callie leaned forward to pour wine in her glass.
"Being the best girlfriend in the world." Callie threw the blonde a flirty smile over her shoulder while she turned around to get the roast chicken out of the oven. "I was so busy this week. I am sorry that I wasn't there for you when you lost the patient."
"Well, I know what I was getting into when you entered the program." She titled her head to accept a peck on the lips when Callie walked around and placed the dish in front of her. "As long as I can see you at home and have a lovely evening with you like this, I'm content."
"Sweet talker." Callie beamed, putting her hands on the blonde's knees to rotate her to the side so she could step closer. Arizona's hands reached out to wrap around the taller woman's neck as the other docked her head to bring their lips together again.
It had been a while since the two shared a real kiss like this. Callie couldn't hold back a moan from the back of her throat when she nibbling the delicious pink lips. Her hands travelled from Arizona's thighs slowly up... but the little moment was interrupted when her phone started to ring.
Callie dropped her head on Arizona's shoulder with a sigh before pulling herself away from the arms of her lover. She turned around toward the living room where she put her cellphone, an extra swag on her hips as she knew very well that Arizona's looking at her.
"Hello?" Her eyebrows raised up when she heard the voice from the other side of the line. "Erica?"
Arizona's wine glass holding hand stopped half way. Unconsciously, the nerve of her body tightened up trying to pick up the conversation of her girlfriend and the other woman. She could see the nervous smile on Callie's face from afar, and she could see that smile replaced by a sigh of relief as the phone call went on.
"Sure, that would be great. See you tomorrow." Callie breathed out slowly after ending the call, as if she was holding her breath the whole time. She stared at her phone for a couple of seconds before walking back to the kitchen. She answered after meeting with Arizona's questioning gaze.
"Erica asked to have lunch with me tomorrow."