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 : I just got this chapter back from the amazing calzonaforever35, who did a great job as usual by the way. However, I was writing something else the whole weekend and now I don't even remember what and how and why I did the things I did in this chapter of OTH…
This chapter has 7.6k, the longest one in this story. I've considered cutting it in half because personally I prefer shorter length like 4K (both writing and reading), but I just couldn't find the right place to make the cut and not annoy anyone of you ;-) just kidding.
Oh I almost forget to say - thank you all still reading this story and coming back.
Chapter 48
"I have to open his chest? In here?" Leah screamed in the elevator, the high pitch yelp made Callie flinch and miss a beat on squeezing the air bag. "No, I can't!"
"Murphy, I don't know how soon they can get this elevator working again. This patient has a bullet in his chest and his pressure is dropping. You said it yourself, you couldn't hear a systolic over 50. Do you want him to bleed out?" Erica raised her voice, trying to overpower the intern's nervousness but it seemed to make it worse.
"I... I can't." Leah kept shaking her head. She stepped backwards, further away from the doors, and away from the attending.
"Dr. Hahn, maybe you should… go easy on her? She is an intern and rebuking her is not going to help." The Chief bent down to squat behind the cardio attending, his voice startling Erica.
"Murphy! I'll walk you through this. Just do one thing at a time." She softened her voice as ordered by the chief, Erica waved the drapes in her hands. "Take these. Prep and drape the patient. This isn't going to be too sterile, but we can still try."
Leah still had her back against the wall of the elevator, staring at the piercing blue eyes outside like a ghost.
"Leah, come on!" Callie leaned toward the doors, extending her arms as far as she could to reach for the drapes while her other hand was holding the air bag. "We have to do this."
The brunette threw the supplies on the gurney and started to drape the patient with one hand. She couldn't help to throw a glare to the pale looking woman standing in front of her.
"We can't let him die in here! Snap out of it and give me a hand!" She handed a surgical gown to Leah, who reacted and put it on finally. It took the blonde intern a couple more seconds to put on the gloves with her trembling hands.
Leah took over the pump when she was done so that Callie could put her gown and gloves on. Outside the elevator, Erica passed a bowl of aqua sterilisata to the brunette. She reached over the other side of the patient's chest to sterilize the surgical field before taking the air bag in her hands again. She was standing on the right side of the patient, and this procedure should be done on the left side.
The patient was ready.
The interns stared at each other. Their chests heaved, and Leah took a deep breath.
"We're really gonna do this."
Before Callie could answer, the cardio attending reached her arm in and tried to hand Leah scissors and a scalpel.
"Murphy, take these."
"This- this is crazy." Leah swallowed visually, her stare fixated on the instruments like they were going to bite her. "I- I've never done this before. I can't."
"Neither of you have done this before." Erica tried her best to sound as calm as she could, but she knew it well that her patient's time was running out. "You are standing on the left side of the patient. His heart is on the left. You've been trained to do it. You can do this, and I'm here to help you."
Under any other circumstance, people would be surprised to hear those words of encouragement from the usual cold-hearted surgeon. However, her effort was in vain.
"I can't." Leah breathed out. She looked between the attending and the scalpel. Finally her fearful gaze landed on the other intern. "I..."
Erica had enough of this.
"You are worthless. You were bitching about how people didn't give you a chance. THIS, is why!" The harsh words made the scared intern wince. "You two switch places. Murphy take over ventilation and the torch! Torres, take the scalpel!"
With a quick look at the attending, Callie jumped into place. She let go of her hand after Leah took over the air bag. Glancing to her peer, she found Leah was on the verge of tears. The words coming from Erica were careless and hurtful, and no doubt that everyone around them could hear it, but this was not the place or time to care about Leah's bruised ego.
"What do I do?" Callie asked after getting in the position with the instrument in hand.
"Make a large, anterior, lateral, midaxillary incision in the fifth intercostal space." Erica said slowly, watching the intern's hands intensely. "You need to get two hands in there. It needs to be long and deep. Use the scissors if you have to."
"Ok." Callie did as she was told. She took a couple of deep breaths each time before the scalpel in her hand made a cut. Erica didn't say anything to scare her, but she knew it well that she could make a huge damage if the blade slit the wrong place. After a couple of minutes, she looked up from the open chest, gave a toothy grin to the attending. "I didn't cut the heart or the lungs."
"Good, good, good." Erica returned a grin. She didn't have the energy to care about the grimace coming from the other woman inside the elevator. "Now, check for injuries and do a pericardiotomy."
"I'll need some lap pads, forceps, Metzenbaums and Satinsky clamps." The intern ordered, and the attending handed over the supplies with a proud smile.
The rainstorm caused problem everywhere in the hospital. Except the elevators stopped working due to the unstable electrical supply, machines on every other floor were working irregularly as well. Other than that, flooding happened on multiple floors. Everyone was running around trying to minimize the damages.
Unfortunately, PEDS was one of the major disaster areas. One of the windows next to the nurse station was smashed by a frying tree branch, a couple of workers were fumbling to cover the open window with plastic before the place was completely drenched by the torrential rain. Several patients had an asthma attack because of the chaotic situation around them. Machines on the NICU were flashing so crazy that they had to switch them to battery operated.
As the head of the department, it was understandable that Arizona was on her feet the whole day since she was called in early this morning.
"I understand your concerns, Tim. But we were just told to keep the kids on this floor." Alex apologized to an angry man, who apparently was the parent of one of the patients.
"So Crystal's daughter gets to go to another floor where is not flooded with inches of dirty rain water, and mine is stuck here? God knows if this place is safe..." The man followed the doctor out of his child's room. The yelling caught the attention from his boss who just walked out of another room after checking on one of the asthma patients.
"It's perfectly safe in here, Tim." Arizona strode to the two men with an overly bright smile. "We have someone fixing the broken window, and the janitors are scrubbing the rooms one by one. Everything will be all right, ok?"
No one could stay mad with that smile. After a couple more promises that things would go back to normal, Tim returned to the room with his daughter, and Arizona was walking down the hall with the resident next to her.
"What is happening? How come we couldn't transfer the patients to the psychiatric floor as agreed?" Arizona kept her smile plastered on her face the whole time, even though inside, she wanted to scream and yell at someone. She knew better not to alert the parents or their patients.
"The elevators are down. None of them are working." Alex said through his creepy smile. "That's why we can't transfer them, unless you want to climb the stairs with those freaking tiny humans in your arms."
"That's terrible. Is anyone trapped..." Arizona asked, but she was distracted by the flickering ceiling lights, and the gasping from the tiny humans and their makers. "We should go check on the NICU again. Do we have enough battery in there for the machines?"
"For the thousandth time, we have enough battery stocked. Maybe we could even ask someone to hook those up with the generators, get those elevators running again." Alex gave the woman walking next to him a double take. "Hey, when was the last time you took a break? You look awful."
"Since this morning." Arizona huffed. "I can't rest until this madness is over."
"Sucks to be the one in charge right now, huh?" The resident joked, earning an honest smile from the attending.
"What can I say? With great power comes great responsibility."
The two entered the NICU, pleased to see everything was in order and every maker of the tiny human was calmly staying next to their incubators. Letting out a breath of relief, Arizona was about to turn around, heading to deal with some other troubles that were waiting for her somewhere on the floor.
"Dr. Robbins," A voice behind her pulled her to stop. Arizona swiveled around, there was Jo running toward her with a frown.
"Is everyone ok, Dr. Wilson?" Arizona gave the intern a hard glare before pulling the corners of her lips to a wide grin, reminding the young doctor to smile no matter what went wrong.
"Sorry, Dr. Robbins." Jo plastered a smile on her face immediately. "I was just wondering if you've heard anything from downstairs. Hear anything about Callie?"
"What about Callie?" The blonde's smile froze. That just reminded her that she hadn't heard a word from her girlfriend the whole day.
"Has she gotten out of the elevator yet?" The intern asked though her toothy smile, and Alex standing in front of her with a half smile and a half frown.
But Arizona couldn't fake the smile any longer.
"What are you talking about? Callie's trapped in the elevator?"
"She's stuck in the elevator with Leah, and a GSW to the chest patient. The last I heard from Edwards, they had to open the patient's chest inside the elevator." Jo stuttered out, she didn't know Arizona was so busy doing her job, she had no idea what was happening in the hospital other than her PEDS floor.
"I- I have to..." Arizona widened her eyes staring at the resident next to her.
"Go. I'll cover for you." Alex gave a little push on the attending's shoulder, urging her to go see her girlfriend.
Running down the stairs, Arizona could hear tumult coming from the 3rd floor. Passed through the crowd gather around the elevator, she found Bailey standing against the wall, few feet away from her was Erica lying on the floor facing the inside of the elevator, and the chief was standing behind her.
"Talk to me, Bailey. Why didn't anyone tell me about this?" Not even bothering to greet her colleague, Arizona asked with urgency.
"We had an open chest and 2 very nervous interns in there, sorry that keeping you up to date about your girlfriend is not on the top of my to-do list." The short woman answered sarcastically, and her eyes kept staring at the elevator.
"Is Callie ok?" Arizona raised her eyes with mouth agape. "An open chest? What's going on?"
"Torres and Murphy are in there with a patient." Bailey chanced a glance to the blonde. "The patient is crashing. Hahn had a crazy idea to have the intern open his chest inside the elevator."
"Who's opening the chest? Callie?" Arizona asked, but she already knew the answer. Erica must have used this opportunity to reel Callie to cardio, showing her the thrill about working on a beating heart.
"Well, because Murphy is useless. It seemed she froze when Hahn handed her the scalpel, and that woman scolded her in front of everyone. That poor girl." Bailey crossed her arms against her chest. "They called me Nazi because I am hard on the interns and residents, and that's the way they learn. But I've never humiliated anyone like that."
"They called her the wicked witch of the west for a reason." The PEDS surgeon said in a small voice.
Bailey turned to face her colleague, but conversation from the scene caught her attention again.
"I removed a small clot from the pericardium." Callie clamped a piece of lump out of the open chest. "No obvious cardiac injuries."
"Change in the vitals?" The cardio surgeon who was still lying on her stomach asked the human light pole who was standing on the other side of the gurney.
"BP's still too low to register." Leah turned her face to the monitor trying to read the figures, and used her light holding hand to wipe the sweat off her forehead.
"We need to cross-clamp the aorta." Erica said while glaring at Leah. "Keep the light on the patient."
After the sheepish looking intern held the light in position again, Erica handed over the Satin sky clamp to the lead surgeon inside the elevator.
"Stick your hand in and bluntly dissect down until you feel two tube-like structures." Erica's voice clear and steady, giving the instruction slowly. "The esophagus will be more medial and anterior."
Callie's hand fumbled around the open chest with her brows knit together.
"I feel one tube that's easily collapsible and the other's more muscular, spongy. I can feel the spine just underneath it."
"Yes! You're touching the aorta, Callie." Erica smiled. "Wrap the index finger of your left hand around it and apply the Satin sky clamp with your right hand."
Callie did as told.
"Got it. I think I can localize the bleeding. It's coming from the inferior vena cava." The intern looked at the attending. "It's too far in to repair. It's small, maybe smaller than a dime."
"Ok, Callie. I want you to take your finger and plug the hole." Erica breathed out.
"I can feel his heart starting to fill more. It's beating a little stronger." A small smile appeared on the brunette's face.
"Excellent. Keep your finger there." Erica dropped her head on the cross arms before her. "Murphy, use the drape to cover the open chest thoroughly."
"What now?" Callie asked while Leah used the drape to wrap around her wrist.
"Now, you just stand there with your finger plugging the hole, until we can get you out of the elevator." Chief's voice came from behind the cardio surgeon. "Great job in there, Dr. Torres."
"Thank you, sir." Callie answered with a nervous smile. She couldn't believe what just happened in the last hour, and the feeling of having a beating heart in her hand was just surreal.
"Dr. Torres, you just flew solo." Webber said with a firm nod. "You will scrub in with Dr. Hahn to finish what you've started, and then you can take the rest of the day off. You've earned it."
"We are totally going to celebrate tonight, Dr. Torres." Erica grinned to her friend, oblivious to the glare coming from the other person inside the elevator.
Arizona didn't get to hear the answer from the elevator. She was paged back to the PEDS floor for an emergency.
Luckily, the elevators were back in service within a half an hour. Everything went back to normal and they were able to wheel the patients to the ORs.
After scrubbing out of her surgery, Arizona passed by OR 1. Through the narrow window on the door, she could see Callie was there operating on the patient with Erica on the opposite side. Staring from afar, she saw the focus brown eyes were completely absorbed in what the teacher was teaching her.
Arizona was proud of her girlfriend, she really was. She had never had doubt about the greatness in Callie. She wanted to stay outside of the OR, waiting for the brunette to get out of it and kiss all over those plump lips to congratulate her for her very first solo surgery.
But she was afraid to hear from her girlfriend that she chose to celebrate this big day with her ex-girlfriend, the woman who gave her this chance to shine. It was understandable. After all, it was a cardio case and Erica Hahn was the one walking her through the procedure. It was their case and it should be their celebration. Shouldn't it?
Dropping her head with a sigh, Arizona pulled out her cell to send a text to Callie, simply congratulating her on the successful surgery while leaving the surgical floor.
After a quick scan on the PEDS floor, Arizona found her department had returned to its peacefulness. The broken window was well covered, the floor was dry and the parents were satisfied. Now, the head of PEDS could take a much needed break.
Flopping down on the chair in her office, the blonde leaned her head back with her eyes closed for a power nap. She hadn't felt this exhausted in ages. A sudden ringing from her cell pulled her out of her slumber. She spread her lips to a small smile as thinking it was Callie, but it wasn't.
"Hey Pam, haven't heard from you in a while. What do I owe this pleasure?" Arizona answered with a tired voice, using her free hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
"Well, Dr. Robbins, you know how busy you are." Her friend chuckled lightly over the phone. "And every time I ask you out, you turned me down because your Callie didn't want to see us."
"It's not true." The blonde protested. "We went out together."
"Oh, admit it. She doesn't like me, or Nicole." Pam burst out laughing.
"You didn't have to rub the fact that she was married to a guy in her face." Arizona rolled her eyes. She remembered the look on Callie's face the last time they all went out for dinner, while Pam's wife Nicole asked her why on earth would she chose to be with a man.
"Pardon me for thinking our gold star Arizona is too good for a guy marrying woman." Pam said teasingly. "And she doesn't have to be so offensive."
"And you don't have to be so judgmental." Arizona sighed deeply. "I've told you, there was a long story behind it and I couldn't share it with you, no matter how good a friend you are to me. Just... don't be so biphobic, for me, please?"
"Fine fine fine." Pam breathed out heavily. "We won't ask her the differences of a penis and a vagina during dinner tonight."
"Dinner?"
"Oh right. I'm calling to invite you and Callie to have dinner tonight. Julie is stuck here for the night due to the weather."
"Pam, I don't know. I'm tired..." Arizona wanted to decline the invitation, but she was cut off by the other woman.
"No, I won't take no for an answer. We haven't seen Julie ever since she moved to Chicago. You have to come." Pam added hurriedly. "Unless Callie doesn't want you to see us."
"Don't be silly." Arizona rolled her eyes again. "I just had a long day at work, and I think Callie has plans with... her friend."
"That sounds even better." Pam said enthusiastically. "I mean, you are gonna be free tonight, right? I promise you that we'll cut the dinner short. You can have your beauty sleep on time, ok?"
Arizona closed her eyes to think for a second. Going out with her friends would definitely be better than staying at home waiting for her girlfriend to return.
"Ok, but I won't stay for too long."
"You really are extraordinary, Callie." Erica said to the intern standing next to her. They had finished the surgery successfully and the patient was on his way to recovery. "You know, most people wouldn't be able to work so calmly in a situation like that. But you, you did it nicely."
"Thank you." Callie smiled bashfully. "I don't know what happened, I was just thinking about the patient. And I have to say, you are a good teacher."
"And you are a good student." The attending bumped her shoulder against Callie's.
"Erica, really, you are a good teacher. We could learn a lot from you." The brunette leaned forward to rinse her arms under the running water. "As long as you don't yell at anyone like you did to Murphy earlier."
"Come on, you were there and you saw it. She was shaking like a deer in headlights. A complete incompetent." Erica sneered. "I heard what she said to you so I gave her a chance to prove herself, and she blew it."
"She just needs some encouragement." Callie shrugged her shoulder. She was mad with Leah's words, but she understood that surgeons were competitive. Especially in the first year, everyone was trying to find their footing. Just because Leah didn't know her struggle it didn't mean she should sink to the same level as hers.
"Well, I don't have time to hold her hands." The taller surgeon turned her head toward her friend looking longingly. "But I don't mind holding yours."
"Erica..." Callie hitched in her breath. She moved to pick up a hand towel avoiding the gaze from the woman next to her.
"Why are we talking about Murphy anyway? Where do you want to go to celebrate?" Erica shifted closer to Callie, picking up a towel from the same stack even though there were some more towels placing on the other side, much closer to her.
"I- I don't think I can make it, Erica." Callie stepped backward, extending the distance between her and the tall blonde. "I'm going to find Arizona."
"Oh." Erica frowned with her widen opened blue eyes.
"Erica..." Callie wetted her lips nervously. "I'm glad we are friends again, I really, really am. And I wish you and Arizona can be friends too but it seems quite unlikely at the moment. I don't know why and I wish I can fix it. I've tried."
Erica remained frozen on the spot, she didn't move except for clenching her jaw.
"I enjoyed the time we spent together. It brought me back to the time in med school, before we got together and things turned so complicated." The brunette drew a deep breath.
After talking to Bailey, she got a brief idea about Arizona's emotional withdrawal recently. True to be told, she was tired of splitting her time between her girlfriend and her friend. Even though she felt obligated to spend time with Erica out of guilt, Arizona should be her priority.
And she took Erica's subtle flirtation as a joke between friends, just liked the teasing between her and Mark. But apparently, Arizona didn't appreciate it, and Erica was taking her non-response as consent. Now she needed to do some damage control.
"Erica, you know how stressful it is as an intern, and every free time is precious. I am in a relationship with Arizona, I want to use them with her."
"What? Robbins said something to you?" Erica snorted, saying Arizona's name made her gritted her teeth. "She owns you and you aren't allowed to have friends?"
"No, Erica, it's not like that. Of course I can have friends, it just... when things happened in my life, I want to share it with her, celebrating it with her." Callie smiled softly. "I love her and I want to, and I need to spend more time with her."
Hearing Callie declared her love to Arizona, Erica's face fell. Her hope of getting back with the brunette shattered and she didn't know how to react to that. So, she chose to turn away, and braced herself against the sink with her hands on either sides, avoiding the gaze from the woman who broke her heart the second time.
"I'm sorry, Erica." Callie whispered before she passed by the devastated woman.
Stepping out of the scrub room, Callie pulled her cell out of the lab coat pocket to check for any message coming from her girlfriend. To her surprise, there was only one. On her way to the elevator, she stopped in front of the surgical board and found Arizona's name was not on it. It meant the blonde should be off duty by now.
Callie let out her breath in a long sigh. She knew Arizona was mad at her, but she just had one of the biggest days in her career, an emotionless text message wishing her a successful surgery and not even stop by telling her that she would be leaving early was just cruel.
After changing into her street clothes, Callie settled in the locker room and started to call her girlfriend. It was connected after 4 rings.
"Hi Callie, you finished the surgery?" Arizona answered the phone with a happy voice, and the background didn't sound like at home.
"Yes, Arizona. Where are you?" Callie frowned. Arizona was perky, but this level of perkiness was new.
"I'm having dinner with Pam and Nicole, and an old friend who's in town for the day." The blonde giggled, it seemed someone said something to her behind the phone. "How was the surgery?"
"It went well. The patient is alive, thank goodness." Callie wanted to talk about it, but the line wasn't very well and it was awfully loud on the other side. "The chief gave me the rest of the night off as a reward."
"I've heard." Arizona giggled again. She waved away the hand from her friend who was trying to snatch the cell from her. "That's great. I can't wait to hear everything about it after you come home."
"After I come home?" The brunette puzzled. "When are you coming home?"
"Won't be late, our main courses have just arrived." Arizona picked up her steak knife as a weapon to shield her fries from the stealing cutleries around the table. "I have to go before they take my food. See you at home?"
"See you at home, love you." Callie answered reluctantly.
"Have fun tonight. Love you, bye." Arizona ended the call with a sigh. Her face fell for a split second when she thought about her girlfriend going to celebrate with... that woman.
"Hey, where does the vivacious Arizona go?" Nicole asked from the other side of the table, making the other two women around them chuckle.
"Yeah, a phone call from Callie and it turned you to this morose girl." Pam chipped in. "What? She's going out with a man?"
"Can you stop it? Callie is not going out with a man..." Arizona said with annoyance. She stopped when she met with her friends's smirk.
"With a woman then." Nicole sang out. "Arizona is jealous."
"I am not. She's just going to have dinner with a colleague." The blonde picked up her wine glass for a sip, trying to hide her redden face.
"Oh, haven't seen you for a year, our Arizona has changed." Julie smiled widely at the blonde sitting next to her. "What about never being tied down by anyone? Never getting jealous of anyone?"
"I am not jealous." Arizona composed herself, but her friends just snickered.
"You know what? Your girlfriend is going on a date with someone tonight, so are you." Julie put her hand over Arizona's on the table. "You are on a date with me."
"Callie is not on a date. And I don't need a date, I have a girlfriend." Arizona tried to pull her hand back, but Julie clasped it tightly.
"Before the night is over, you are on a date with me."
"Callie? What are you doing here tonight?" Joe raised his eyes to the woman sitting down on the barstool in front of him.
"I have the night off, and Arizona's with her friends. The adrenaline in my system is still running like crazy that I can't stay at home doing nothing. So, I am here." Callie answered at a stretch.
"Adrenaline? What have you done today?" Joe put a glass of rum and coke in front of his boss.
"I operated on a man inside the elevator. I opened up his chest and put my hand on his heart, plugged a finger in it to stop the bleeding." The brunette said proudly before taking a gulp of the drink. She didn't know how much she needed it until it ran down her throat.
"Was it safe? Operating in an elevator?" The man gave her a grimace that made Callie laugh.
"To be honest, it wasn't. The power went off and we were stuck in there. It was the only way to keep that man alive. And I kept him alive."
"Way to go, Callie." Joe said with a smile, and he put 2 shot glasses on the bar top to pour the Latina and himself a shot of tequila. "Pretty soon you are going to operate on this table."
They shared a laugh and finished the shots.
"Hey, why didn't you and Arizona go celebrate? I know you two have a special 'celebration' routine." Joe wriggled his eyebrows knowingly, but the brunette groaned in return.
"She was gone before my surgery finished."
"Oh. Are you two all right? She was pretty upset yesterday when she was here." The bartender leaned against the bar top, looking at Callie with concern in his small eyes.
"Did she tell you why?" Callie heaved a sigh.
"No, but I heard her conversation with Mark, something about Erica Hahn?"
"If that bothered her so much, I don't understand why she didn't talk to me." Callie finished her drink with the last gulp. "I'll talk to her tonight, everything will go back to normal. Hey, why are you here alone?"
"Lucy got some emergency at home. She'll be here a couple hours later." Joe gestured the empty glass in front of the brunette. "Do you want another glass?"
"Nope." Callie stood up from the stool and walked around the bar top. "I'll help you. I need to do something."
"You are the boss." Joe winked at her and threw her a towel playfully.
It had been a while since Callie bartended. She always had fun doing it. It could clear her mind when something was troubling her. An hour after she stood behind the bar, she already earned the tips that Joe needed to bartend the whole night. Well, her curvy body and mega watt smile did help a lot.
It was a quiet and slow night, it was why when a group of women entered, talking loudly that could easily catch her attention.
"Come on, just one drink, and we came here to your neighborhood, in the rain." One of the women shouted, obviously already tipsy. "We are soaked wet in a bad way. The least you can do is buy us one drink. You are allowed to go home afterward, but we don't recommend it."
"Keep you voice down." Another woman spoke up. Callie knew this voice. "The bathroom's over there. Get a table, and I'll go get the drinks."
Eying the four women passing through the front door, two of them that Callie knew went straight to the toilet on the other side of the pub; one of them that Callie had never met occupied a table near to the door. And the one that the brunette knew so very well was walking toward the bar. And she was stunned when her gaze met with the brown eyes beauty.
"Callie, what are you doing here?" Arizona asked as she sat down on the stool right in front of the part-time bartender.
"Well, my girlfriend went out with her friends, left me alone at home. So, I came here to earn some pocket money." Callie answered coldly, purposely avoiding the stare from the blonde who was looking at her with wide eyes.
"I thought you went out with Hahn. I heard you two made plans." Arizona took a sharp intake of breath. Now, she felt bad of going out with her friends.
"She suggested that, but I told her I wanted to spend the night with my girlfriend." Still acting frigidly, Callie asked. "What can I get you and your friends?"
"Why didn't you tell me, Callie?" Arizona leaned forward, trying to get closer to her girlfriend. "If I've known, I wouldn't have gone out with them."
"You didn't let me finish on the phone." The face of the brunette softened. She was about to lean forward to meet with the waiting pink lips, a shadow invaded their little bubble.
"Hey, it's rude to abandon your date to flirt with the bartender. No matter how hot she it." Julie stood next to the blonde, put a hand on her shoulder while her eyes roamed around Callie's chest.
"Date?" Callie's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. She stood straight and stared between the two women.
"No no no no no, it's not like that." Arizona jumped up from the stool and shrugged off the hand on her back. And Julie almost lost her balance from the sudden move. Apparently, she was tipsy too.
"Oh honey, the night is not over yet. I am still your date." Julie steadied herself with a hand on the bar top. She looked between the pale looking blonde and the stunning bartender. "But after she goes home to her man-married girlfriend, I'm free. What time do you get off, gorgeous?"
"Julie!" The blonde roared to her friend. She cast a glance to her girlfriend, who didn't look very pleased.
"Hey, where are our drinks?" Pam and Nicole came out of the bathroom and found their friends standing by the bar, of course they approached them. As soon as the two women came close to there, they found who was standing there in front of them. "Callie?"
"Callie?" Julie swiveled to face the couple. "THE Callie who married a man?"
Pam and Nicole nodded in unison.
"No, you said THE Callie is working in the hospital, where her husband is working with our Arizona." The tipsy woman turned to look at the brunette. "You're a bartender."
"She owns this pub." Arizona rubbed her temples with a hand, and then she turned to her other friends. "Can you take her to a table over there? I'll get your drinks."
Without a word, Pam and Nicole carried their friend to a table far, far away from the bar.
"Callie..." Arizona tried, but the brunette remained her stone cold face.
"What can I get for you and your friends?"
"Just give them white wine, and some water." Arizona sighed out. She knew it was going to be a long night for her.
Luckily, Joe came to the rescue.
"Callie, I got it." The man took the bottle from his boss's hand before her tight claw break the bottle and the glasses. Callie whispered into Joe's ear before she picked up her purse and headed to the door.
Arizona hot on her heels followed.
It was raining again, not so heavy but hard enough to drench the two women in the short distance from The Horizon to their building. Callie shoved her hands in her leather jacket leaned against the back wall of the elevator looking straight ahead deep in her anger, but she could still notice a few silent sneezes coming from the blonde standing next to her.
Arizona's hair was already soaked wet when she was with her friends waiting for a cab in the rain, the walk backed to the apartment made it worse that she could feel the chill in her bone. She sighed when she found Callie rushing into the bedroom as soon as she entered the apartment. Striding to the kitchen, the blonde got herself a glass of water and grabbed the bottle of aspirin for her pounding head. The exhaustion from a stressful day at work and the wine she drank during dinner finally weighting on her shoulders.
She closed her eyes and swallowed the glass of water in one gulp. When she opened them again, there was Callie standing across the countertop staring at her with a towel in hand.
"You should dry your hair and take off the wet clothes before you catch a cold." Callie said coldly, handing over the towel to the dripping woman. Despite the growing rage inside, she didn't want the blonde to freeze to death.
Arizona took it with a timid smile. She used it to wipe her head after shrugged off the drenched coat. All the while, she glanced at the brunette from the corner of her eyes.
"So," Callie sat down on the stool, staring at the woman with her killer glare. "You went out on a date."
"No, Callie. It wasn't a date." Arizona said in a hurry. "Julie is an old friend. She and Pam were joking about that because they knew you were out with Erica."
"You talked about that with them? You know they don't like me!" Callie raised her voice. Arizona's group of friends always irritated her. She knew Pam was Arizona's best friend, she wanted to like this woman but they totally started on the wrong foot. Ever since the first time they went out, Pam's wife Nicole teased the Latina of marrying a man but switched teams after meeting Arizona, that made Callie's face changed in different shades of color in 2 minutes. Those proud lesbians took every chance they got to make fun of their friend's girlfriend.
"Not that I told them, I just... I told them you had plan with someone else that was why you couldn't join us tonight." Arizona tried to explain, but she didn't know she was making it worse. "They asked if you were going out with a man, I told them it was a woman and then they started to joke about it, and saying that I was there on a date with Julie too. That's all."
"Heterosexual joke again? Seriously?" Callie shot up from the stool. "When are they going to forgive me for not being a good enough lesbian for you?"
"Callie..." Arizona rubbed her forehead with her palm. Callie's shouting made her ears start to buzz.
"Really, what do I have to do? Get my own group of lesbian friends, create our subculture so that your precious friends won't talk down to me anymore?" The Latina started to pace between the kitchen and the living room. "Oh wait, I have a lesbian friend, but you don't like her because she is not coming from your group!"
"Callie, that's not the reason and you know that." A whitish hue took on Arizona's face. She dropped her hand on the countertop with an annoying huff.
"No, I don't. You want me to so I've tried to be nice to Pam and Nicole. Do you know how many times that I wanted to throw the wine in their faces when they called me Callie O'Malley?" Callie stopped on the spot, turned to glare at her girlfriend with hands on her hips. "I just sat there let them make fun of me because I love you and I tried to love your friends..."
"You weren't really a delight to them, Callie." Finally had enough, Arizona yelled back. "You stared at them with your Callie glare. Even after they stopped, you were nothing but cold and detached! Yes, my friends were making jokes but those were harmless. At least they didn't call you a whore to your face!"
"What are you talking about?" Callie looking at the blonde perplexed.
"You want to know why I don't like Erica Hahn? She called me a whore. She said I don't deserve you and I should let you go before I give you STD!" Arizona gripped the edge of the countertop tightly as she shouted out the affront came from the haughty cardio surgeon. Callie stood looking at the bulging neck veins on the pale neck with her mouth agape.
"When did she say that? There must be a misunderstanding. Erica won't..."
"She came to my office and said to my face, Callie! Are you really that naive?" Arizona walked around the countertop to stand toe to toe to the stunning brunette. "She wants you back, that's why she took every chance she got to keep you away from me! And you let her!"
"You are being paranoid! Yes she has a harsh mouth but that doesn't mean..." Callie snorted disbelievingly and shook her head. Arizona interrupted her again.
"Erica Hahn said to my face! She said she wants you back, and she will get you back." The furious blonde ground her teeth. "From me, the STD carrying whore!"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Callie's face softened, she reached out wanted to hold her girlfriend's hand, but Arizona took a step backward.
"Would you have believed me? Would you have listened to me if I told you I don't want to share you with Hahn?" Arizona threw her head back laughing sarcastically. "You were over the moon about mending the relationship with your first girlfriend."
"So, what? Instead of trusting me, talking to me, you chose to pull away?" The brunette asked. Arizona didn't answer but shifted her gaze to the side, that made Callie's wrath returned. "You accused me, but you were the one who went on that freaking date with someone while I was looking for you. On the biggest day of my career!"
"It wasn't a date!" The blonde threw her hands in the air. She didn't know what else she could say to make Callie believe that was just a dinner with friends. "And I thought you were going out with Erica Hahn! I heard her say she was going to celebrate with you!"
"She asked me out but I wanted to celebrate it with you! How would you think that I want to spend this special day with Erica? It is crazy!" Callie rolled her eyes. "Don't make it my fault! You were gone before I scrubbed out!"
"How would I know? She had a successful surgery, you went out with her. She lost a patient, you went out with her!" Arizona held up her fingers as she made the counting. "How many times in the last few weeks have I stayed at home like a desperate housewife, waiting for you to return? It's like... it's like you chose her over me!"
"This is insane! You question my love to you just because I spent a little too much time with a friend?" Callie huffed. She couldn't believe after all the things they had been through, Arizona would still have doubt in her.
"She is not just a friend, Callie!" The blonde shouted with her fists clenched. And it made her head pounding even harder. "She was your first and she always has a special place in your heart! How can I compete to that?"
"You don't have to compete to that! I told you I was never in love with Erica, you know it! I'm here with you, am I not?" Brown eyes stared at the woman standing before her. Her anger was fainting away slowly, now she just felt... sad.
"Because you live here!" The fight was getting too hot and Arizona failed to filter the words coming from her mouth anymore. "Pretty soon we are just gonna live like a pair of roommate sharing a bed, until you realize Hahn is right, you deserve better and you want to get back with your first!"
"What are you doing? You keep pushing me to Erica, so that you can get back your freedom and date whoever you want? It's that what you want?" Callie asked sorrowfully. She was afraid of what Arizona was going to answer.
"I am not pushing you away! You are the one pulling away from me!"
"You know what? I'm here because I love you and I want to be with you, but if you think otherwise, there's nothing else I can say." Cast a last glare to the heated blonde, Callie turned toward the front door, picking up her jacket and purse on the way.
"Where are you going?" Snapped out from her wrathful haze, Arizona asked with widened eyes.
"I can't look at you right now." Callie called over her shoulder before slamming the door shut. "And I don't have to stay because I live here."