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. Sorry, don't have much to talk since I'm babysitting my 3 years old niece for the first time. Just want to give a special thanks for the help from the wonderful and amazing calzonaforever35 for this chapter ;-)

Chapter 46

"Callie, quit it!" Arizona giggled and squirmed on the bed as her equally naked girlfriend tickled her relentlessly. Just a few minutes ago she made the brunette beg for mercy, and now pay back was a bitch. "Please!"

Callie lowered her hips to restrain the kicking legs underneath her, kissing and nibbling across the creamy chest between fits of laughter. She finally stopped the assault when Arizona caught her wrists. But being the stronger one and the fact that the blonde was out of breath from giggling, a quick flick of her wrists, Callie easily got free from the hold and grabbed the arms from Arizona, pinning them over their heads with a triumphant grin.

"You don't fight fair, you know!" Arizona pouted, and batting her long eyelashes purposely.

"Oh, and making me beg and beg, pulling out 3 times when I was so close was fair?" Callie lifted an eyebrow, and ground her hips nonchalantly that induced a soft moan from the pink lips.

"At least I gave you what you wanted in the end!" Arizona rolled her head back, bucking her hips trying to get more contact on her lower body. The woman on top's grin grew wider.

"What do you want from me then?"

"How about let go of my arms, and use your hands for better use?" Knowing the cute pout and puppy dog eyes didn't work, Arizona pulled out her big gun - her dimpled smile.

"Who's not playing fair now?" Callie smiled into the sparkling blue eyes. She knew her girlfriend used the dimples as a weapon on her for getting whatever she wanted from her, but how could she deny this beautiful woman of hers?

Dipping her head slowly, she brought their lips together. Her hands had their own minds to move downward, caressing the soft cheeks while their tongues danced together. Then went on to roam around the squirming blonde's shoulders, lingering on the swelling flesh that made the woman on the bottom wriggle even wilder. But her hands stopped their tracks on the slim hips and refused to go further south.

"Callie..." Arizona broke their kiss, letting out a frustrated whimper and dug her nails into the strong back atop.

"Hmm?" Callie shifted to kiss along the arching neck, sounding as innocent as she could but Arizona could feel the smile from her burning skin.

"I really need you. Please..." Arizona managed to stammer out between panting and moaning while smooth lips pressed against her chest, and the delicious feeling of her peak bathing in the warm and talented mouth just made her crave for more. "Just... lower, please..."

"God, you're so hot." Callie climbed back up, whispering to her girlfriend before taking the earlobe into her mouth. Meanwhile, her hand went straight to the wet heat. And Arizona arched her back with a long, satisfied moan.

The lovebirds started dinner after Erica's phone call. It was their night after a long week of a conflicted work schedule, they both secretly decided to put this tall blonde cardio surgeon in the back of their mind - even though Callie didn't know Arizona was bothered by Erica as well.

The dinner went by slowly, the two talked about their works, and the new rule from the hospital, of course. After the bottle of wine was finished, they cleared off the plates and worked as a team in the kitchen to clean up the place. The innocent chore turned into an intense make out session when they started to grope and grasp each other between washing the dishes and wiping the counter top. By the time they reached the bedroom, there was a trail of clothes on their living room floor.

Callie flopped down on the bed and cuddled the blonde from the side while the other was trying to catch her breath. Instinctively, Arizona lifted her arm to wrap around Callie's shoulder, pulling her as close as possible.

Resting her head on Arizona's shoulder, Callie placed a hand on the perky chest to feel the rapid heartbeat under her palm. They laid in bed with the comfortable silence around them, words weren't needed when they were in each other's arms.

"You know," Callie said softly, stopping momentarily when she felt a kiss on her forehead, showing her that she got the attention from the blonde. "I don't mind not being able to have sex in the hospital. Nothing's better than lying in our own bed, having all the time we need to do whatever we want to do to each other."

Arizona kissed the brunette again, and buried her nose in the raven hair to calm her nerves. Mentioning the on-call room, her mind drifted back to the conversation she had with Erica earlier today, and she could see that annoying smirk from the arrogant cardio surgeon flash in front of her eyes.

She couldn't help but to think back to the times she sneaked out of a room after an encounter with her old flings. It was exciting, and fulfilled the loneliness in her heart for a brief moment. But after having the taste of being with someone that was deeply connected to her, not just physically but also spiritually, she had to admit the wild past brought her nothing but emptiness; and she knew she'd be damned if that would drive Callie away.

"I need my time to worship every inch of..." Callie's finger tips writing circles around the soft stomach, chuckled lightly as she saw the goose bumps on the smooth skin. She stopped half way into her sentence when she titled her head and found a frown on her lover's face. "Hey, are you all right?"

Clearing her throat, Arizona tried to force a smile on her face and told the woman in her arms that she was fine, but Callie didn't buy it.

"No, you aren't fine. You have your deep in your through face on, what's wrong?" Callie propped herself up by the elbow, looking down at her girlfriend half-jokingly. "The sex wasn't good?"

"What? You're crazy." Arizona laughed out, and reached out a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind the brunette's ear lovingly. "It was mind blowing, as always."

"Then why the face?" With concern in her eyes, Callie used a fingertip to try to ease the furrow between Arizona's brows.

"Callie," Arizona wet her lips, taking the caramel color hand in hers and studied their fingers nervously. "Remember... we talked about this once, before we were officially dating?"

"Yes...?" Callie squinted, not quite sure what Arizona was asking. But the other woman just avoided her eyes.

"That time... you've heard about me... and the nurses...? And we had a talk about it?"

"Why are we talking about it now?" Callie's squint turned to a deep frown with pursed lips.

"I told you, I am not proud of it. If I could wipe that away from my past, I wouldn't hesitate." Swallowing hard, Arizona finally lifted her head and looked at her girlfriend with tear glazing eyes.

"I believe you." Callie stared at the blue eyes, and panic started to roll in her stomach. "Honey, please tell me what's wrong? Why are you crying? Did something happen?"

"No, I just..." The blonde twisted the corner of her lips, trying to pull a smile on her face. "I'm just being sentimental. You know, after sex."

"Arizona..." Callie took back her hand to brush away the messy blonde hair around the face in front of her. "We've been together for a year already, and I wasn't born yesterday. Just tell me what's on your mind?"

"Does it... does it bother you that I have this... past? That you have to work with them now?" Arizona looked deep in the brown eyes with her own eyes opened wide, vulnerability lingering in her voice that made her girlfriend's heart clench.

"Arizona," Callie's gaze softened. Her thumb brushed around the creamy cheek affectionately as she continued. "Although we had this talk a long time ago, I still remember what you told me. You didn't believe in relationships, you didn't know how to maintain a relationship because you had never settled down in one place, or with anyone. Then I asked you, what am I to you? Do you remember your answer?"

"I said I don't know." Arizona answered in a small voice.

"You said you don't know, you don't fully trust yourself and that you won't hurt me but you'll do your best not to." Callie kept her gaze locked with Arizona smilingly. "Do you have an answer for me now? What am I to you?"

"You are the love of my life, Calliope." The blonde answered without a second thought. That brought a broad smile on Callie's face and earned herself another tender kiss on the lips.

"I love you too, Arizona." Callie breathed out against the sweet lips, and then pulled back slightly so she could look back into the sky blue eyes; the eyes that drew her to this woman like a magnet since the first time they met. "You have your baggage, and so do I. This isn't a competition, but don't you realize my baggage is much bigger than yours? I was a mess when I first came to here. You dealt with my dad, and then George."

"Calliope, I will do anything for you." Arizona smiled with a breath of relief, like a heavy rock had been lifted off her chest.

"You even put it in action when I said I wanted to go back into medicine. You were there for me, you weren't scared of my past, there's no way I would be bothered by yours." Callie sank deep on the bed, resting most of her body weight on top on the blonde and brought their faces closer to each other. All the while, her great, soulful brown eyes never left the pools of blue. "Do you know how happy I am to have found you?"

A small smile turned into a bright dimpled one. Callie dipped her head, and captured the inviting lips with nothing but all the emotion from her heart. Lips slid back and forth against each other tenderly, and they both moaned into each other's mouth as their tongues touched, starting a dueling dance.

After minutes of intense kissing, they parted lips, pressing their foreheads to one another trying to catch their breath. The loving couple gazed at each other with matching goofy smiles.

"So, are you done being crazy?" Callie said with an arching brow. "I'd love to tell you and show you how much I love you all night long, but I'm on PEDS tomorrow. I've heard that the head of PEDS is a brilliant, talented and energetic surgeon. I need a good night sleep to restore my energy so I can keep up with her."

"She sounds like a piece of work." Arizona pushed the brunette on her back, and rolled over to snuggle up to the curvy body closely.

"Oh, she is." Callie said matter-of-factly, but she broke to an ear to ear grin when she was met with the beaming face in her arms. "And she is my piece of work. She has this super magical smile that makes people forget about how difficult she is."

The two shared another kiss before slowly drifting into sleep with a content smile on their faces.

"Why is Callie sitting there with the wicked witch?" Stephanie asked her peers as she and Leah settled their trays of food on the table, where everyone had their gazes in the direction toward the other side of the cafeteria.

"Catching up, probably." Jo shrugged, still looking at Callie and Erica.

"Catching up on what?" Stephanie asked again, this time she got the attention from everyone around the table.

"You don't know?" Heather raised her eyebrows before putting a grape into her mouth. "Callie went to the same med school as Dr. Hahn. Actually, they were in the same class."

"How is that possible? Dr. Hahn is an attending, and Torres is just an intern." Leah blurt out, the soda she just sipped almost sprayed all over the place.

"Rumor has it Callie was in a coma for 5 years. Dr. Shepherd cured her about 2 years ago, and then the chief pitied her and gave her a job here. That's why she knew everyone before she started her internship." Heather said again, but Shane shook his head.

"No, I've heard that she dropped out of med school because she was pregnant. Her daughter was very sick and then came here 2 years ago asking Dr. Robbins to treat her. The child died, somehow Callie and Dr. Robbins got together."

"Oh people," Jo turned back to the table facing her friends with annoyance. "Callie wasn't in a coma, nor did she have a child. She just didn't think being a doctor was her thing at that time, so she postponed her internship and decided to start over again now."

"She told you that?" All eyes on Jo, and Stephanie asked the question.

"No, Karev told me. He heard it from Robbins." Jo picked up her soda with a complacent smile, proud to herself that she knew the story about her friend better than the others.

"Karev told you? What? You're his favorite of this week?" Words came out of Leah's twisted lips with bitterness. Jo stared at her with a stunned look.

"I am not." She exclaimed. "I will never fall for that guy. And I am telling you, have some self-respect, stop pinning for Alex Karev. He's not worth it."

"I am not-" Leah tried to protest, but she interrupted.

"Look, the wicked witch is touching Callie's arm. Have you seen the way she's looking at Callie? Do you think they were a couple back in med school?" Stephanie propped her head up with her elbow on the table, eyes crinkling behind her glasses

"Yeah right." Leah rolled her eyes, biting on her sandwich sourly. "Everyone loves Callie Torres. She gets Dr. Robbins. She gets Dr. Sloan. Of course she can have Dr. Hahn too."

"Well, can you blame them? Callie is hot. She's like really sexy, almost dirty hot." Shane shrugged his shoulders. Callie was taken but it didn't mean men, or women would stop appreciating her sex appeal.

"Oh shut up, Shane." Leah murmured with her mouth full, but no one cared about her and kept staring at the people that sparked their conversation.

"If Callie is sitting there with her old girlfriend, where is Robbins?" Heather glanced around. Everyone followed her trying to search for the silhouette of the other blonde attending, but Arizona was nowhere in sight.

Callie knew almost everyone in the cafeteria was looking at her and Erica, but she wasn't concerned about the audience.

She was nervous while approaching the table where the tall blonde had occupied waiting for her. Arizona asked if she wanted to have a moral support. After thinking it through, she figured maybe it's better to face her old friend alone. Besides, Arizona needed to prepare for surgery after lunch.

To her surprise, there was no yelling, slapping or name calling from the woman that she left without a word years ago. Instead, Erica greeted her with a small smile. The tall blonde simply started with telling her that she was hurt, understandably. However, it had been years and she had moved past that stage. After a week of adjustment, she found her peace again and as fate pulled them back together in a place that they should be (working in a hospital together), she hoped they could be friends again, like old times.

No word could describe how pleased and relieved Callie felt.

Ice broke shortly after Callie expressed her sincere apology. They started to take a walk in the memory lane each with a tray of food in front of them.

"I didn't do that!" Callie shook her head with a roar of laughter. Erica put a hand on her forearm as she was trying to catch her breath.

"Don't deny it. You totally pulled that prank on Professor Stinky Stinkerson. 2 hours later he returned to the lab smelling all... Dove body wash-y."

An hour of lunch time flew by quickly. Of course, Erica didn't want their little reunion just ended in there.

"So, do you have any plans tonight? How about dinner? I'd really like to know what you'd been doing all these years."

"I can't. Mark just learnt a new dish, and Arizona and I promised to go over to try it." The brunette made a playful grimace. It wasn't the first time Mark invited his neighbor/best friends to try his cooking. He wasn't a good cook but they always had a good time during dinner parties, especially when the girls kept criticizing his cooking.

But Erica took the grimace as another sign. She knew it was her chance to stir something between Callie and Arizona.

"You know, you don't have to go if you don't want to. I mean, I would feel uncomfortable watching Robbins and Sloan flirt the whole time."

"What do you mean?" Callie chuckled lightly before sipping her drink.

"The flirtation between those two... Oh you don't know about it?" Erica raised her eyebrows, trying to act as surprised as she could. "The whole hospital was talking about it. It seemed they have something going on..."

"Don't believe anything you've hear in here, Erica." The brunette grinned widely just thought about the idea of Mark AND Arizona. "Arizona would never let little Sloan come near her. Yes he joked about having a threesome with me and Arizona, but that's just a harmless joke; and I've known Mark even before they became colleagues. They are just very good friends."

"You do?" This time, Erica was truly surprised. "You're friends with Mark Sloan?"

"Yeah, Mark and I go way back since I went to New York, after I left Miami." Callie couldn't help to chuckle again. "Mark and Arizona... that's hilarious. Where did you hear that?"

"I- some nurses." Erica stuttered out. She had a layout in her head and now she had to change the approach. "I think they weren't talking about the two of them sleeping together. Right, they were saying both Robbins and Sloan hook up with nurses in the hospital. Apparently, a lot of them."

"Really? They still talk about that? It was years ago." Callie glanced around the cafeteria, throwing some angry glares to the people looking at her direction. "Mark is in a committed adult relationship with little Grey now, and Arizona and I have been together for a year. We're happy, and stable."

Talking about Arizona brought a dreamy smile on Callie's face. Erica replaced her sour frown quickly when the brunette looked at her again.

"By the way, it's not really that many nurses that were involved with Arizona or Mark. Bailey told me a big part of nurses were replaced after the big strike over half a year ago. I wonder how many of those who are gossiping about them really know anything about it."

"You're ok with it?" The blonde was astounded. "Don't you remember how mad you were at that guy you dated before we got together? You broke up with him the moment you found out he was screwing that slutty TA from the chem lab."

"He cheated on me, of course I was mad." Callie rolled her eyes, and picked up her soda for another sip. "Besides, I wasn't really that into him, breaking up was the right choice. But what Arizona did was before we got together. Actually, long before I came here. As long as she's not falling off the wagon again, it doesn't really bother me."

Erica listened quietly. The wheels in her head were turning fast, searching for another detail that she could use. And the wheels were running a little too hard that Callie caught the look on her face. Dots linked together, the brunette narrowed her eyes at her renewed friend.

"Erica, you had a surgery with Arizona yesterday. What did you say to her?"

"What?" Erica's face fell, her jaw clenched tightly. "She said something?"

"She talked about... things." Callie put the tumbler down, and leaned forward on the table looking at the blonde sincerely. "Look, don't let the rumors mislead you. Arizona is an amazing person. You'll like her once you know her better."

"I just... worry about you. I don't want you to get hurt, Cal." Erica gazed into the brown eyes, running her hand up and down her old girlfriend's upper arm tenderly.

"She is not going to hurt me. She makes me happy." Callie smiled wholeheartedly, Erica just felt the jealousy grow bigger and bigger in her stomach. "And it will make me happier if you two could be friends too."

"We'll see." The cardio surgeon forced a small smile. Behind the smile, she told herself that was never going to happen.

"We should go out together sometime. You, me and Arizona. Maybe Bailey and Yang will join us too. We can go to dinner, and dancing, a girls night." Callie said as her pager went off suddenly. She had a surgery to attend to and it's time to go. "Sounds good?"

"Yeah, sounds great." Erica gave her friend another bitter smile before the brunette left to work.

Entering the scrub room, Callie could see from the window that her girlfriend was in the OR talking to the patient on the table. Even though this was the first time they were going to operate together, Callie was pretty familiar with the perky PEDS surgeon's bedside manner. She always stayed with the tiny human before they went under, making sure the little children wouldn't be too scared of what was going to happen.

As soon as the little body went limp, Arizona backed to the scrub room to get ready. Noticing her first assist intern was already there, her face lit up with a wider smile.

"Dr. Torres, are you ready for your first appendicectomy on a tiny human?"

"Yes, I am, Dr. Robbins." Callie grinned back. It took her a great deal of self-control not to lean forward to kiss that beautiful face in front of her. Thanks to the stupid new rule from the hospital, the two had agreed to keep their physical contact to a minimum. No more kissing in the hospital, especially when there were nurses and anesthetist that could see them from the other side of the window.

"It's going to be a simple surgery. The appendix is just slightly inflamed. As long as it doesn't burst, we shouldn't be facing any complications." Arizona leaned against the sink tying the mask around her neck, looking at the intern as she explained the procedure. "If Alex wasn't suspended from being the outbreak monkey of syphilis, he'd be the one doing it, normally."

"How long is the suspension?" Callie asked, her hand reached for the mask on the shelf after securing her scrub cap.

"3 days. Now I have to find another resident to assist with the bowel resection tomorrow. I taught Karev the procedure 2 weeks ago, thought we'd get to practice it." Arizona sighed with a childlike pout. She hated it when she had to operate with some other surgeons that weren't as hardcore in PEDS as her, or her star resident. The pout brought out a chuckle from the woman standing next to her. Arizona studied the beaming face for a while. "You are smiling. I take that as the lunch with Erica went well?"

"It was pretty good, actually." Callie picked up 2 bars of soap, handing one to the attending. "She said she wants us to be friends again."

"Oh." Arizona breathed out airily. "That's… interesting."

"It is." Callie started to scrub, avoiding the obvious discomfort in her girlfriend's voice. "Especially, since she said something... very interesting."

"Oh...?" The blonde froze with wide eyes, the soap slipped between her fingertips landing on the sink with a clang. She fumbled to pick it up. "What did she say?"

Callie stopped her hands to gaze at the pale woman with a smirk. Her suspicion was right. The sudden emotional tailspin from this blonde last night must have something to do with the other blonde.

"Arizona, you know you can tell me anything, right?" Callie cut off the water, and twisted her body slightly to look at Arizona with eyebrows shot up to her forehead.

"What do you mean?" Arizona cast a quick glance at the tall brunette, and then turned her focus on scrubbing. She could feel the intense brown eyes burning a hole on the side of her head, but she just kept her gaze on her hands, trying to focus on what she was doing.

"I don't know what Erica said to you yesterday when you two operated together, but I think she may have said something that upset you. Did she?" Callie looked at her girlfriend fondly, who was still trying not to make eye contact. The brunette sighed lightly, and grabbed a towel to dry her drenched hands before putting them on Arizona's shoulders to swivel the blonde to look at her.

"Callie, you're scrubbed!" Arizona gasped, snapping her head up to gawk at the intern.

"I will scrub again, but I need you to look at me first." Callie leaned forward, making sure she was holding the gaze of the blonde. "I know Erica said something that upset you. She didn't tell me what it was but suddenly, you were talking about the nurses, and she was talking about the nurses..."

Arizona dropped her gaze to the floor, but a squeeze on her shoulders made her bring her eyes back up.

"I am your girlfriend. You need to let me know if there's something bothering you. This is how a relationship works, ok?" Still holding the shoulders in her grip tightly, Callie chuckled. "I know you're not good at... maintaining a relationship, we are going to work together. But you can't expect me to read your mind every time."

Arizona caught her bottom lip between her teeth with a slow nod, trying to hide her timid smile.

"I just... I know you feel guilty about how things ended with Erica, I didn't want to say anything to make you feel worse."

"Something's troubling you would make me feel worse, Arizona. You know what? We're going to go out together, giving everyone a chance to get to know each other better." Callie turned back toward the sink, totally missing the frown on the blonde's face.

"Uh-ah." Arizona gave another slow nod, continuing her previous task silently. Being a people person, there was only a handful of people that would make her feel uneasy. Unmistakably, Erica fell to this category instantly. She's really not sure if she could befriend with this woman.

"Erica has an edge but once she opens up to you, you'll find she's a nice person, and what an awesome friend she could be." Callie said enthusiastically, and she got a forced smile in return.

"We should go. Tiny human waiting." Arizona smiled over her shoulder as she strode toward the OR, leaving her girlfriend in the scrub room to re-scrub, getting ready for the surgery with her.