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 am sorry I am sorry I am sorry. Well, there's a funny story about why this update came so late. I was discussing another story with my lovely beta calzonaforever35, the email of this chapter was buried between the other emails and she missed it. We only found it out when she sent me back the next chapter :p

Once again, super thanks to calzonaforever35 for the awesome work, and thanks for bear with me. You rock, girl!

Chapter 49

Callie groaned when the alarm from her cell phone started to go off. It felt like she has just shut her eyes to get some sleep. Well, it wasn't too far from the truth. She flipped to lay on her stomach, while her hand reached out to the nightstand to turn off the annoying wake up song - Somethin' stupid, one of Arizona's favorite songs and she put it in Callie's phone as the alarm, saying the upbeat tone would brighten her day.

"Yeah, no need to remind me of that." She mumbled in the pillow and shoved the phone under it. Yup, she already had a whole night to think about how stupid the fight with Arizona was.

5 more minutes, she said to herself. But she was startled when the mattress dipped slightly and a body pressed against her back. Callie could smell strawberry toothpaste from the person talking into her ear.

"I heard the music. You need to wake up. Now."

Callie faked a whimper. She was cranky after a lousy short lived sleep like that, but she could never be grumpy in front of this one.

"Breakfast is ready. You need to go eat before the lucky charms get all soggy." Little hands fumbled to brush the raven black hair away from the sleepy brunette. "Come on, auntie Callie. I have been waiting for you since I woke up."

"Really?" Flipped over in a flash, her hands flew to tickle the little girl that landed on her chest. Maddie wriggled and giggled uncontrollably.

"Please... please... auntie Callie... please stop."

"Maddie, leave Callie alone and come eat your breakfast, the lucky charms are getting soggy." Walter's voice came through the wide opened guestroom door. Maddie glared at Callie with her childish pout.

"See?" The girl slid off the bed. She turned to the woman in bed with hands on her hips. "Get you lazy butt out of the bed. I made you breakfast. I poured the milk in your bowl and you have to eat them."

Not even waiting for an answer, the happy girl skipped off the room humming a merry little tune.

Callie laughed lightly with Maddie's antic. She could see that Joe and Walter had totally rubbed off on the girl. And Maddie was no longer that morose little poor girl who would wake up in the middle of the night screaming for her mother. It was Arizona's fantastic idea to put the girl with Joe and Walter. And being a part of the village, the women helped as much as they could. Without a doubt, Arizona was her favorite because of the ridiculously rich knowledge of children movies.

Ugh, Arizona.

Callie was about to roll over and groan into the pillow, then Maddie called from outside.

"Callie! Breakfast!"

Tying her hair to a messy ponytail on the way to the kitchen, Callie smiled toward the foster father and daughter as they were both noticed her appearance.

"Morning Maddie." She kissed the top of the little head that was sitting at the dining table, and gave a cheek kiss to the man next to her. "Since when has she become the mom of the house?"

"Ask Joe." Walter shrugged with a smirk. He could never admit that he was the one who spoiled their little angel.

"Ask me what?" The big man questioned behind Callie. He handed one of the cups of coffee in his hands to the amazed woman.

"It's barely 9 in the morning, why are you getting up so early?" Joe wasn't supposed to be home until 4am after the pub closed. He normally slept in till noon.

Ignoring the question, Joe sat down across from his foster daughter.

"Sweetie, it's time."

"No!" The girl whined with her mouthful of cereal. She looked between Joe and Callie. "I want to stay with Callie. You said I had to wait until she woke up and I waited."

"You have to go to school. You promised to share your marshmallow sandwich with Lisa today, remember? If you don't go to school, Lisa will miss lunch." Walter bent down to coo at the girl.

Callie sat down on the last empty chair around the dining table, looking at the interaction between the two with a smile. She blinked a couple times when Maddie pulled her into the conversation.

"Is Callie going to stay tonight again?" Maddie asked innocently. "I just got a new book, you can read to me when I go to sleep."

"I-" She didn't know.

"Maddie honey, you're going to be late. Go get your backpack and Walter will take you to school." Joe spoke up with his stern papa voice. Maddie knew better not to throw her tantrum right now.

Putting on her Dora the explorer backpack with her bottom lip stuck out, she gave Joe and Callie a kiss on the cheek before following Walter out of the door to her day of fun in school.

"Thanks for letting me crash here, Joe." Callie sighed in her coffee. "I just couldn't stay there fighting with her. I don't want to say things that I can't take back."

"No sweat, honey." Joe wrapped his arm around Callie's shoulder, and gave her a strong squeeze. It wasn't the first time the brunette came to him after a heated fight. She hated confrontation.

"Ok, I should take a shower and get ready to work." Callie stood up from the chair, and Joe followed her toward the guestroom.

"What are you going to do?"

"Go to work." The brunette looked over her shoulder, saying casually.

"I mean with Arizona." The man entered the room, and went to the cabinet to get Callie a towel.

"I don't know. She was so angry last night. I really didn't know Erica said all those awful things to her. Why didn't she tell me?" Callie accepted the offered towel, then clung it against her chest under the folded arms. "She said I still have feelings for Erica. How could she think that?"

"Oh Callie, Callie..." Joe shook his head lightly. He started to make the bed as he kept talking. "You are an open book and you have a simple mind. You never change. After all the crap in your life, I don't know if it's a blessing or a misfortune."

"What do you mean?" The brunette looked at him with a frown, but Joe just kept working on tidying up the bed without looking back at the woman.

"As I said, you think people would believe what they see is what they get. You forget that people are actually complicated, especially for someone so insecure like Arizona."

"I don't follow." Still confused, Callie shrugs wearily.

"I talked to Arizona's friends last night." Joe picked up the pillow to fluff it up, threw a glance toward Callie. "After you came to the pub saying that you wanted to come up for the night."

"Is that why you were wake up so early? To tell me you're on their side now?" Callie said teasingly. She wasn't paying much attention to the pub when she entered, but yeah, those women were still there.

"I'm not picking sides. Just... after they sobered up, they sat around the bar and we started to talk." Joe dropped the pillow and pointed to the now made bed, gesturing the brunette to sit down. And she did as told. "Nicole wanted to apologize for making fun of you. She did that just to piss Arizona off because she doesn't like it. Arizona threatened to cut them off if they ever made that joke in front of you again. And that made them tease her more."

"Well, it wouldn't have happened if she didn't tell them in the first place..." Callie murmured under her breath, hands fidgeting with the towel on her lap.

"Arizona let it slipped once. She was having a heart to heart with Pam one night, and she told Pam about how George refused to sign the divorce papers." Joe pulled a chair from the corner to sit in front of Callie. "In case you haven't noticed, your girlfriend is a very private person. She refused to get into the details. Her friends don't know the story behind that marriage, all they know is that was Arizona's biggest fear."

"What does she have to fear? She knows I love her and George meant nothing to me." Callie lifted her eyes to look at the man sitting before her.

"As I said, people are complicated. Knowing the story is one thing, but you can't stop someone from being afraid of history repeating itself. Some people just can't help but think of the worst even when they're in the happy place." Joe leaned closer, resting his elbows on his knees gazing at the woman.

"I know that. We have talked about it after I came back from Miami. She thought I was gonna leave her like I walked away from George." The brunette pursed her lips, remembering the conversation they had months ago. "She told me she thought I didn't include her in my plans, that I went back to my parents without discussing with her first. We cleared it out and we were good."

"And yet, the history repeated itself." Joe raised his eyebrows, willing the brunette to look at him but she just stared at the towel deep in her thoughts. "You invited Erica in your life. You spent your free time with Erica. You can't blame Arizona for thinking otherwise."

"I just... I didn't invite Erica into my life. I wanted them to be friends but I didn't know... Erica was being so horrible to her. If I'd known..." Callie threw her hands in the air and clapped them on her lap. She was feeling frustrated and she didn't know what more she could do.

"If you'd known, you would still tried to fix it. I know you Callie." Joe chuckled lightly, making the brunette groan in protest. "You have a huge heart and we all love that about you. But you need to set a boundary. Not saying you shouldn't care about your family or your friends. But if you love someone, and you believe that person is the one who is going to walk by your side for the rest of your life, her feelings are what matters more."

Callie nodded feebly, taking in the words from the man silently.

"If, I say if, anything happens between you and Walter, and the damage is far from repair, I am sorry but I won't hesitate to pick his side because he is the one for me." Joe put a gentle hand on Callie's knee. "I'm not telling you what to do. I just want you to think about it. Is she the one for you? Does she deserve to have your full attention? If so, is this the best you can do? If not, should you let her go?"

No one dared to come close to the head of PEDS today.

From the pale cheeks, reddish nose and the bags under the unusually dull blue eyes, no doubt that the doctor was not feeling well. But other than that, the dismalness that clouded over the stone cold face told everyone that the bright and shiny woman was in a terrible mood.

The people on the PEDS floor saw their boss like this no more than twice a year. And they knew better to leave her alone. But of course, there was always someone thought that they were the bravest person in the world one that could poke the bear and walk away without a scratch.

"Dude, what's wrong with you?" Alex approached the nurse station, and picked up a chart while glancing at his boss who was leaning against the desk reading a chart. "You look terrible. Party too hard with Torres last night?"

Closing the chart with force, Arizona turned to glare at the resident with a hand on her hip.

"What makes you think I was partying last night, Dr. Karev? Huh? Is this how you talk to your superior? You think we are equal, that you can ask about my personal life?"

"I just-" The man stared at the blonde blankly with his mouth agape. Arizona had never snapped at him like this no matter how rude he was. "You look sick. I just through you should..."

"What? I should pack up my things and let you take over my job? Do you want me to clear out my stuff and give you my office right now?" Arizona said coldly. She felt terrible inside and out. The poor resident just happened to be her whipping boy.

"Dude, chill! I don't mean any of it." Alex held up his hands in surrender. "I'm just worried about you. You should go get some rest. You've been working very hard lately."

"I'm sorry." The blonde ran a hand through her hair and sighed heavily. "I'm tired, just... walk away, Karev."

The man ran away with his tail between his legs.

This kind of rudeness didn't appear on the perky woman likely, but the fight with Callie was really eating her.

Shortly after Callie stormed out of the apartment, Arizona received a call from Joe telling her that Callie was going to stay at his place for the night. Feeling relieved was the understatement of the year. Not that she didn't trust Callie, but knowing the Latina was capable of making irrational decisions in her unstable emotional state, it could make the blonde breathe more easily when Joe was there to keep an eye on her.

Could breath easily didn't mean she had a peaceful night.

She should've taken a day off in her condition. Her head was still hurting and the rain shower she had had done a number on her. But as the responsible head of the department, she needed to be on the floor to oversee the recovery after the rainstorm, even though she wasn't able to get in any OR.

Luckily, the work was lighter than she expected. After locking herself in the office with paper work for the whole morning, she was finally able to take a break and decided to take a short nap after she finished rounds.

Right after she stepped out of her office, someone ran toward her.

"Dr. Robbins, I'm in PEDS today but I can't work with Dr. Karev. Do you have any cases where I can work with you?" Leah plastered a smile on her face staring at the attending hopefully.

"What?" Arizona looked back at Leah with a frown.

"You know, after what he did, I really can't look at him. And I really don't think he should be allowed to work with any intern. He's a jerk." Leah made a grimace.

Everyone knew Dr. Robbins was the nicest attending in the hospital, the intern thought she could have some understanding from the PEDS surgeon. But today was not the day.

"What exactly are you saying about your resident?" Arizona glared at Leah, the cold eyed stare made the intern gasp. "You are here to learn to be a doctor. You shouldn't let your personal life effect your work. And that's why the hospital issued the non-fraternization policy. You are assigned in PEDS and he's the resident on the floor. Your job is to assist him and learn from him."

Leah dropped her head trying to hide her tremble lips. Since the syphilis outbreak and the incident in the elevator, she could see that people looked at her differently. Like she was a fraud and didn't deserve to be in the program. Maybe she was, but right now she just wanted to have some sympathy from someone, anyone.

Taking in the distress from the intern in front of her, Arizona sighed.

"Murphy, I know it's hard, but life doesn't always go the way you want it to. You fell for the wrong guy. You choked on your job. Yes, that sucks. Take that as a lesson and learn from it. Just don't let the same mistakes happen again." The attending took a step forward, and gave Leah's upper arm a squeeze of encouragement with a weak smile. "Room 5123 & 5142 need an IV and 5103 needs to remove the feeding tube, and finish up the charts. I'll go take a nap after rounds, then we see what we get after lunch."

"What do we got?" Alex walked up to the bed in the pit, where Callie was examining a young patient.

"Joyce Williams, 7. Complaining of abdominal pain and vomiting." Callie stepped aside to let the resident check on the little girl. "Why are you here? Shouldn't Arizona be the PEDS consult?"

"She assigned all cases to me today." Alex pressed on the patient's stomach lightly, and the girl was wriggled in discomfort. "She looked very sick today, and moody."

"Oh." The brunette turned to look at Alex with wide eyes. "Is she all right?"

"You're asking me? Shouldn't you know better than me?" Alex snorted. "She almost bit my head off when I talked to her. What's wrong with her?"

"We... kinda had a fight." Never the one to hold her tongue, Callie said sheepishly. Alex gave her a side glance before talking to the parents waiting by the bed.

"It's not surgical. I think it's the flu. We'll run some tests and keep her here overnight for observation, but she should be fine."

The resident and the intern walked away from the bed as Alex started to write on the chart.

"Whatever you two are having, fix it." The man said without looking at Callie. "Like it's not bad enough to have Murphy in PEDS today. Sick, moody and exhausted Robbins is terrible to work with."

"I'll go find her after settling this patient. I'll apologize and everything will be fine. Don't worry." Callie took the chart and clang it against her chest. "She's still upstairs?"

"I told her to go home, but I don't think she's going to listen." Alex turned to leave, and he called over his shoulder. "Fix it."

Callie sighed deeply. She knew Arizona was getting sick last night. But she also knew the stubborn woman would most likely use work to distract herself from their fight despite how sick she was.

"You had a fight with Robbins?" A snort coming from behind pulled Callie out from the through. She rolled her eyes before turning to face that person.

"Erica, we need to talk." Callie said to the tall blonde adamantly. Erica raised her eyebrows with a ghost of smile on her lips.

Erica just heard bad news that could most certainly change her life, but she couldn't help to have a secret happy dance in her head after overhearing the conversation between Callie and Alex. And she was pretty sure it had something to do with her. She couldn't help to think maybe Callie finally realized Robbins wasn't good for her. They fought, and they broke up. That's why the brunette wanted to talk to her, telling her that she's available now.

Quickly shoving the chart to an intern and ordered the follow up, Erica followed Callie into an exam room.

"Erica, why did you call Arizona a whore?" Not even waiting for Erica to close the door completely, Callie turned to stare at her friend with fire in her eyes.

"Because she is." Erica looked into the eyes of the angry woman without flinching. She absolutely had no problem to admit what she had said. And she had no doubt that Arizona would tell that to Callie. She was just surprised that the whore didn't tattle on her earlier.

"I told you, it doesn't bother me what Arizona did before she and I got together. And it certainly doesn't concern you. You have no business calling her that. You owe her an apology." Callie squared her shoulders, glaring into the shocked blue eyes firmly.

"Excuse me?"

"Arizona is my girlfriend. You insulted her. I need you to respect her if you want us to be friends." Callie said firmly with her lips pursed tight. "And I need you to know, with or without Arizona, you and I will never get back together. I'm sorry if I have given you a wrong idea about that."

"No, Callie." The tall blonde doctor shook her head fiercely. "It's just like when you were with that dumb ass boyfriend during med school. We didn't think we would work out but it did. We worked out and we were good together. You just didn't see it when you were blinded by that stupid smile. He cheated on you and so will she. Everyone knows she's a whore who used to sleep around, god knows if she's still doing that behind your back."

"Stop saying that, Erica! It's different and I don't appreciate the accusation you keep pointing at my girlfriend. She had her past and so did I. I've said it once and I will say it again. It doesn't bother me!" Callie chewed the inside of her mouth. She was getting angrier by the second with Erica's harsh words against Arizona. And she could only imagine her choice of words would be even more horrible in front of Arizona.

"Remember when we were in med school? We stayed up all night talking about those hopes and dreams, what we were gonna do with our lives... We can still have it." Erica stepped closer, looking at the brunette with her pleading eyes. "I forgave you for leaving me. I'm here now. You don't have to settle for that woman. I'm here now."

"Yes, I remember our late night talking, Erica. It was my best memories in med school, that I had you as my best friend. But things changed once we weren't just friends. Don't you get it? We were happy when we were friends but that wasn't love." Callie took a long, deep breath, struggling to find the right words not to hurt her old friend.

"It was..." Erica opened her mouth to protest, but Callie shook her head and continued.

"We never worked as a couple. It wasn't love because I know love. Falling in love is like... searching for the missing pieces of yourself and you found it when you met the one. I lost my first love and I lost a big part of me. And then I found Arizona, she completed me again. That is love, it's like coming home."

"Your first love?" Blue eyes almost bulged out of her eye sockets. "You mean that loser before me? You've got to be kidding."

"No. I met someone when I was in New York." Callie's face softened when she thought about Malena. "I was a mess after I left Miami, and then I found her. Then I was again a mess when I left New York, and then I met Arizona. They made me free alive, and I can breath deeply. I haven't really told you why I left Miami, Erica. I left because of you. I realized what we had wasn't real love. You were seeing leaves but I didn't. I was suffocated. I'm so sorry that I took off without explaining that to you better."

"You're saying... you never loved me?" Erica locked her jaws tightly.

"I feel bad about hurting you, Erica. I really do." Callie gave the dumbfounded woman a bitter smile. "And I am glad that we get the chance to be friends again. But if you have a problem respecting my girlfriend, I'm sorry. I can't have you around."

"You're going to choose that woman, even though you know one day she will fall back to her old habit, sleeping around?" The tall blonde stared at Callie in disbelief. "Once a whore, always a..."

"Stop calling her that! You're a well educated woman. You should know how to respect people. Please stop. Please leave me the last bit of potential for you." Callie stood still with her teeth set and her wide eyes flashing. "And to your answer - yes, I'll choose her no matter who she was before we met, and I'll choose her no matter what's going to happen in the future."

"You'll regret it, Callie." Erica looked at the brunette with a pretentious pout, making the other woman frown deeply.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But I'm going to take this chance." Callie nodded to her old friend before putting her hand on the door knob to pull it open. "One day, you'll find someone that you love and they'll love you back. You'll find that love is so deep that none in the rest of the world matters anymore."

Erica stayed in the exam room after the brunette left. Her blood was boiling thinking about the things Callie said to her. Callie was the first person she ever loved. She chose to believe the brunette vanished over night because of the pressure from her family. But it turned out, it was her love that suffocated the woman to make her leave everything behind. She had never felt so humiliated, ever since she found out she graduated second in her class, after Callie.

A nurse rushed to the room and surprised to find Dr. Hahn was alone in there.

"Sorry, Dr. Hahn. We need this room. A patient is 5 minutes away." The nurse apologized, and the intense gaze from the cardio surgeon made her swallow hard. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Yes." Erica paused for a second. She was about to lose everything in her life and decided that she was not going down alone. "Page Dr. Murphy for me."

"Are you sure about this, Sloan?" The chief asked the plastic surgeon who was standing in front of his desk with his buddy next to him.

"Positive." Mark nodded. "She did the procedure without FDA approval. It failed and the patient was in ICU for months. The hospital tried to hide it but the patient died 2 days ago, the parents decided to sue her and the hospital."

"A friend of mine from FDA confirmed it this morning." Derek chipped in. The chief took off his glasses and snorted.

"No wonder they were so happy about the transaction. They wanted to get rid of her." The chief nodded slowly.

"What are you going to do?" Mark asked with his arms folded against his chest, trying very hard not to smirk. "Pretty sure they're going to revoke her license."

"I have to call for an emergency board meeting and meet with the legal team." Webber picked up the phone and waved the 2 men to leave. "Shepherd, make sure to take her name off the surgical board."