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: Hello everyone! Another chapter is up.
I am thankful that you all like the last chapter. That was the start of a series of intense moments that I have cooked for quite a while, hope you enjoy it. But before you start reading it, I need to clarify this - I love both Callie and Arizona, I don't want you to think that Arizona was selfish in this story because she wasn't.
Was Arizona selfish? Contrarily, this was an act of selflessness. Nick and Ruthie were supposed to stay for just a few days but it was extended due to Ruthie's condition. What could Arizona do? Asked them to leave, telling them that she needed her life back? That, would be selfish. Think about it, Arizona didn't just oblivious to the impact of this effect Callie, but herself as well. So don't call her selfish. The correct word should be stupid, or inconsiderate.
Super, super, super thanks to my beloved friend calzonaforever35 for helping with this chapter. I told her I want to post this before the mid-season premiere and then she stayed up till 3am to get it done. You are awesome, my friend!
Chapter 63
"I've been trying to apologize to her for 3 days now. She walks away the moment she sees me coming." Arizona sighed while seasoning her coffee. The look of anxiousness on the despondent face made her friend worry.
"Does she look mad? Or miserable? Like you are now?" Teddy asked.
"I can't tell. She was... angry, and sad, and disappointed... everything. I don't know." The blonde shook her head. "Was I really that terrible to her? I mean, I do sound like a terrible fiancée."
"You're just taking care of your family..." The taller blonde grimaced at seeing the other woman dump another packet of sugar into the coffee, was that... the third packet?
"But she's right, she's my family too." Arizona stirred her coffee distractedly. "I should've put her first."
"You're human, Arizona. People tend to overlook the crap that they put their love ones through. Give it time. It was just few days ago, give her time to cool down." Teddy put a comforting hand on Arizona's shoulder consoling softly, but she knew none of the words had got into the troubled woman's head.
"I don't know how to fix it. She doesn't even give me a chance to talk to her." The blonde took a gulp of her coffee. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't even realize her beverage was much sweeter than usual.
"You said Derek called for a meeting." Teddy recalled their initial subject while they went for the coffee, hoping the positive conversation could pull the blonde out of her funk. "It's good a sign, right? Maybe he has some progress in the treatment plan?"
"I hope so. I need something good. Nick was embarrassed for breaking down in front of me and feeling guilty about... you know, Callie and my fight. He moved into my parents and I don't know how he's holding up." Arizona sighed as she gazed into distant space. "I need something good to come out of this day, for everyone."
Teddy was racking her brain searching for other comforting words, when a navy blue scrub wearing doctor approached the coffee cart distracted her mind. Mark gave the cardio surgeon a small smile but ignored the other surgeon that was standing next to her.
"Come on, Mark. You're mad at me too?" The blonde huffed, but the Plastic surgeon kept his eyes on the barrister, ordering his cup of Joe.
"I've promised Callie that if anything happened between the two of you, I'd pick her side."
"Nothing happened between..." Arizona held her tongue abruptly after the man gave her a glare. "Fine, we had a flight."
"Mark, don't interfere." Knowing how bad her friend was feeling, Teddy stepped up. "It's between the two of them."
"Do you think I want to?" Mark flung a scornful look toward the women while taking his coffee. "The last time I did that, Cal almost cut me out of her life. I've learnt my lesson."
"How is she?" Arizona asked hopefully. She desperately needed to know how her fiancée was, but Mark just shut his mouth tight. She pleaded. "Mark, please?"
"What do you think? You love someone, and thought that someone loved you back..." The thin lips twisted in a contemptuous sneer, but he cut off his attitude when he was met with the sincerity in the blue eyes.
"I love her, Mark, and you know that." The blonde tilted her head looking deep in the man's eyes with nothing but determination. "I need to talk to her."
"Good luck with that." Mark rolled his eyes, waved a hand whilst he was walking away. "She doesn't really talk to me or anyone these days."
"You have to help me." Arizona ran up to the man blocking his path, looking at him sternly. "I know Callie is your best friend, and so am I. You have to help me."
"Fine!" Mark heaved a sigh. Of course he loved both women, and he knew how good the two were together, just... "For the record, you asked for my help. If Callie gets mad at me or anything, I have you to blame. What do you want me to do?"
"She walks away every time I'm in her sight..." Well shaped brows knit together as the wheels in the blonde's brain turned quickly. Blue eyes lit up when an idea came across her mind. "Can you get her to the cafeteria during lunch? My parents will be here today and I'll drag them there for lunch. Callie likes my mom. She won't run away from my mom."
"Using your mother? How old are you?" The tall man couldn't help to chuckle.
"Desperate times, Mark. Desperate times." The pager clipped on Arizona's waist went off. She gave the tall man a glance before ran off. "I have rounds. I'll see you and Callie at lunch. Don't let me down, Sloan."
During rounds, Arizona asked permission from her attending for sitting out the surgeries in the morning. Surprising, Herman was being understanding and let the fellow skip the operations, saying that she had done those procedures a couple times successfully, it wouldn't be a disaster for playing hooky for a day.
The Robbins accompanied Ruthie to the hospital in the morning, and she was admitted by the order of her Neuro surgeon right away. An intern wheeled her off for scans and check ups as Arizona and her parents were told to wait in the conference room.
"Where's Nick?" Arizona asked her mother. Nick had never missed a doctors appointment. It was strange that the man wasn't here yet.
"He didn't come home last night. I thought he was at your place." Barbara frowned, and it went deeper when the blonde shook her head.
"I was studying here last night but I went back to change this morning. No one was there."
"Sorry, sorry, I am late." As on cue, the man rushed in the room and sitting down next to Arizona. He made a grimace when he found 3 pairs of blue eyes staring at him. "I had a few drinks and crashed at a friends, kinda overslept."
"You went drinking again?" Arizona leaned over and asked in a low voice, trying to keep it away from her parents who were sitting on the other side of the table. Nick whispered back before the blonde started to chew his ass off.
"I went to Joe's for just one drink. Really, just one." The man swore, and there was a twist in his brown eyes. "And I met someone..."
"You hooked up with someone?" The blonde exclaimed under her breath made her parents glare at them curiously. Nick quickly tugged the hem of her lab coat signaling her to be quiet.
"Keep it down! I know it's terrible, but I just needed a distraction. Don't judge."
Arizona narrowed her eyes at the man for a moment. Nick was right. He deserved some distractions from worrying about her mother's the condition, and prying into his night might distract her from her own misery...
"Who is she?"
"Abby." Nick said with a dreamy smile. "She said she's only in town for a few days visiting her brother. We weren't drunk, I swear. She had a club soda and I had just a beer. We were talking and then... you know. She was staying at her brother's and I couldn't take her to your parents, so we went to the hotel."
"Classy." Arizona sneered.
"She was hot. Really, really hot. You'd tap that if you were there."
"No, I won't tap anything because I have a fiancée." Threw a glance to the smirking man, Arizona rolled the engagement on her finger subconsciously.
"How is... how is thing with Callie?" Nick made a wry face when he saw the blonde's face fell. "Do you want me to apologize to her? It was my fault."
"It was my fault." Arizona signed. Her friend tried to object but stopped while seeing Derek entered the conference room with Meredith and Lexie in tow.
"Mr. and Mrs. Robbins, nice to meet you." Derek greeted the new comers of the group before smiling to Arizona and Nick. "Thanks for coming at such a short notice, but we all know time is a factor in Ruthie's case."
"You don't say." The colonel said scornfully, making his daughter drop her head in shame. Luckily, the Neuro surgeon overlooked the offending comment.
"I have consulted with a fellow Neuro surgeon and we came up with a plan." Derek checked his watch. "We are supposed to explain it together but she's not here yet... Anyway, let's start."
Meredith and Lexie set up the charts and scans as Derek started to describe the procedures. Yes, procedures. It was a massive butterfly glioma, to successfully remove it, it required multiple procedures. First, ultrasonic surgical aspirator to mush and flush the cells. Then using a laser to ablate cells off the optic nerve. The most dangerous part would be built in a distribution of a radioactive seed during surgery, keeping the tumor free of recurring cells. It was like a seven different surgeries in one, all using the hardest techniques.
All the surgical terms made the non-doctors dizzy, and the doctor in the chair feeling uneasy.
"Are you gonna be doing this whole surgery yourself? I'm just asking, giving everything... It's like a what, 12 hours surgery?" Arizona asked with uncertainty.
"10. And no, I am going to have a co-surgeon in this surgery." Derek answered with a proud smile, and he had all the reason to. Not in a millions years would he imagined this surgical plan would come from this person.
The door of the conference room opened abruptly, a flash of dark hair run into the room.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry. I know I am late and I am so sorry."
"Amelia?" Arizona's eyebrows raised up when she saw her old friend, and her head spun to the side after her friend called out.
"Abby?"
"Mr. Donovan, how are you feeling?" Callie entered the patient's room with her nose buried in the chart.
"I'm... I'm fine. You didn't kill me." The patient in bed was groggy from coming out of anesthesia, but he was still able to make jokes with his surgeon.
"I told you, a knee replacement is the simplest procedure. Dr. Chang did an excellent job." The resident went deeper into the room, checking the machine next to the bed. "Soon you are going to walk as fast as a young guy without pain."
"See? I told you that you can trust Dr. Torres." The wife picked up Mr. Donovan's hand striking it tenderly, giving her man a sweet smile.
"No offense, Dr. Torres." Mr. Donovan paused to take a breath. "But your tight and gloomy face really didn't scream confident."
"None taken. I am sorry about that. I just... have some personal stuff going on. I'll try to do better." Callie plastered an apologetic smile on her face. And she noticed the ragged breathing of the patient. "Are you having trouble breathing?"
"Yeah, my chest is kinds heavy." Mr. Donovan nodded with a hand striking his chest.
"Probably is post-OP Pulmonary Embolism." The brunette picked up the chart and prescribed quickly. "I'll going to put you on blood thinners. You'll get better soon."
"Thank you, Dr. Torres. Can he eat?" Mrs. Donovan asked after the resident finished the check up. "I mean, he hasn't eaten for a while because of the surgery. He needs all the energy he can get, right?"
"Sure. You can go get him something. I'll check on you later. Have some rest, okay?" The resident nodded to the couple before headed out of the room. As soon as she hit the nurse station, Mark appeared on her side.
"Hey, Callie. How was the surgery this morning?"
"It was a simple knee replacement, what do you think?" The brunette answered without looking up from the chart. The coldness in her voice made the man grunt.
"Jeez, panties still in a twist?"
"I'm sorry, Mark." Callie rolled her eyes before facing her friend. "The surgeon went well, the patient is in recovery."
"Good." The Plastic surgeon smiled satisfyingly. "Hey, it's spaghetti Bolognese day in the cafeteria. Let's go."
"No, I'm not hungry." The brunette went back writing on the chart, but Mark snatched the pen from her hand.
"You love spaghetti." The man held the pen high when Callie tried to get it back. He needed a reason to get the brunette to the cafeteria. "And I... uh... I need your advice, about Lexie."
"Seriously? You want my advice about your love life when mine is a disaster?" Callie squinted, putting a hand on her hip and the other passed the chart to the nurse.
"Don't say it like that, you and Robbins..." Mark looked at her sympathetically, but the brunette waved him off.
"You know very well that I don't want to talk about her."
"Fine." The two walked side by side down the hall. "What do you think about me asking Lexie to move in with me?"
"Do what you want to do." Callie said giving him a mocking look. "Just make sure you don't have a family that would come in and kick her out of there."
"Nick isn't going to join us?" Barbara asked as the family sat down at a table facing the entrance of the cafeteria.
"He said he has some questions to ask Dr. Shepherd. He'll come find us later." Arizona answered absentmindedly. She was looking around making sure Callie and Mark weren't here yet.
"Questions? Shouldn't we stay with him?" The colonel asked with a stern stare. "I would like to ask Derek Shepherd something too. This surgery seems very dangerous."
"Nick is not with Derek. He has questions for the other Dr. Shepherd." The blonde answered hurriedly. She knew her friend wasn't going to talk about the surgery with Amelia but her parents didn't need to know that. she needed to ensure the old couple that this would be Ruthie's only chance to survive. "And yes, this surgery is dangerous, but every surgery has its risk. You've heard from your guys, there's nothing much anyone can do."
Arizona was right, and her parents knew that. They fell in an uncomfortable silence until Barbara exclaimed lively.
"Callie's there." The old lady waved her hand animatedly. "Callie!"
Callie was bug-eyed seeing the Robbins couple as soon as she entered the cafeteria. And of course, Arizona was there with them. Shuffling along somewhat reluctantly, she came to the table and was greeted with a tight embrace from the mother of her fiancée.
"Honey, I haven't seen you for days." Barbara let go of the brunette, meeting with an awkward smile.
"I... I was kinda busy. Sorry."
"Callie would you like to join us for lunch?" Arizona asked innocently. Callie hadn't looked at her while addressing her parents. It was expected.
"Mark and I are something to..." Glanced at the blonde in the corner of her eyes, Callie tilted her head toward the man who was standing next to her. Only that Mark wasn't standing there anymore.
"Nah, we can talk about that later." Walked around the table, Mark flopped down on the chair next to the colonel. "Mammy and daddy are here, we should have lunch with them."
The brunette stared at the smirking man incredulously, but she didn't have time to scold him. Arizona already pulled the chair and Barbara tugged her to sit down.
"Callie you looked tired. I know you doctors are busy, but you have to take care of yourself." Still holding the tanned hand, the mother said tenderly. "Come over for dinner tonight, let me make you a home cooked meal."
"Maybe... uh... maybe later. I'm on ortho this week. I am... uh... busy." Callie shifted in the seat facing the old lady, with her back to the blonde subtly.
"I saw that you have a surgery with Dr. Chang. How did it go?" Arizona asked, with extra sweetness in her voice, but the resident didn't even turn to look at her dimpled smile.
"It was okay." Callie's answer came in brief and stiff. She redirected her attention to the old lady. "So, why are you here today?"
"Arizona didn't tell you? Dr. Shepherd has made a plan and he had his sister come in to help with it." Barbara looked from the woman who soon to be her daughter-in-law to her daughter, oblivious of the awkwardness between the two women. On the other hand, the colonel didn't miss it.
"Which sister? Amelia?" Brown eyes went wide. She turned around to the blonde and got a nod of confirmation.
"Yeah, she arrived last night. And..." Arizona was delighted to be acknowledged by Callie, but it was short lived as the brunette turned back to her mother quickly.
"When is the surgery?"
The blonde chewed her lips staring at her two favorite women interacted. She was glad that her mother and her fiancée got along splendidly, but right now, she needed Callie to herself. Giving a meaningful glace to the man sitting across the table, Mark got the signal loud and clear. He jumped up from the table.
"Okay, mammy and daddy..." A hard stare threw his way from the colonel, the tall Plastic surgeon swallowed his own tongue. "Uh... Mr. and Mrs. Robbins, you aren't so familiar with the hospital cafeteria food. How about I go with you over there to see what do you want to eat?"
"Right, let me go with..." Callie was about to get up from her seat, Mark was already behind her and pushed her back down by the shoulder.
"No Callie, you stood enough during the surgery this morning. You sit." Giving his friend a wink over his shoulder, Mark had Barbara in his arm walking toward the counters with the colonel next to them.
"Please Callie, can we have a conversation?" Arizona couldn't wait any second longer. As soon as her parents were out of earshot, she leaned forward to the brunette who was still facing away from her.
"Not now, Arizona." Callie scooted her chair over slightly, extending the distance between them. "I need some time."
"I know you are mad and do not want to talk to me. I guess I deserve that." The blonde said sincerely. Even though Callie didn't want to see her face, she desperately needed the brunette hearing her. "But you need to know I love you. And I care about you."
"I know." Callie breathed out, fidgeting with her own hands.
"You know I grew up an army brat. We moved every 18 months and all we had was each other." Arizona wet her lips. She knew it wasn't a good enough excuse but she was speaking from her heart. "It wasn't my intention to neglect your feelings. You have to believe me. I was taught to take care of my family. Protecting the things I love. I was doing the right thing, Callie. You... I just didn't know you needed me."
"Oh so it's my fault?" The brunette swung around in the chair as soon as the word hit her ears. How dare of Arizona blame this on her?
"No no, that's not what I mean. It's just... Ugh!" Arizona hurriedly took Callie's hands in hers before the brunette had a chance to storm out. "Normally I am good with words but I just feel like I can't think properly anymore, Callie. I was so occupied. It was like a million things happening at the same time and... I just... I took your support for granted. I made my problem become your problem. It's unfair to you..."
"Arizona, I understand why you're doing it. And I know the fellowship is going to take up a lot of your time. I know what I have signed up for. I don't mind sharing you with them. But it's just... it doesn't feel like sharing you anymore." Brown eyes went red and watery. She still felt aggrieved at the blonde's action. How wouldn't she? "When you didn't show up the other night, when I found you with Nick... I felt like... I felt like I'm losing you."
"No, Callie. I'm here. You're not gonna lose me. And I can't lose you, okay?" Arizona held the hands tight and placed them against her heart. Looking deeply in the soulful brown eyes, she poured her heart out without hesitation. "I will do better. I promise."
"Don't make any promises that you're not going to keep..." Callie dropped her head and sneered mockingly. Being stood up the other night still stunk.
"I will keep making promises to you and I will do my damnedest to keep them." The blonde reached her hands to unpin the engagement ring that was hooked at Callie's scrub top pocket. Carefully, she put the ring back on the tanned finger. "We promised to spend the rest of our lives together, remember?"
Taking the hand in hers again, Arizona rubbed her thumb across the soft fingers tenderly. She secretly let out a sigh of relief when Callie didn't take her hand back.
"Derek and Amelia have come up with a plan. They're going to operate on Ruthie very soon. No matter what the outcome is, Nick is going to step up to take care of his mom with the help of my parents. I can take it off my shoulders."
"Arizona, I'm not asking you to choose..." Callie widened her eyes in shock. Yes, she was mad, but she didn't mean to keep the blonde away from the person that she cared about so deeply.
"No, but I am offering. You are my family. You are my best friend and you are the love of my life, Callie. I should've considered your feelings but I failed. Let me make it up to you. I will make it up to you." Arizona smiled sweetly, a hand came to caress the caramel cheek with love. "Just give me 3 more months. As soon as I take the board exam, we can go back to our usual routine. And we can plan the wedding together. I'll be more involved, I promise."
"Arizona..." Another promise. Callie swallowed hard to suppress the gloomy foreboding in her stomach.
"Callie, I love you and you love me. I can't wait to be your wife. If I could, I'd drag you to the city hall this afternoon, but I don't think my mom would like that." Chuckling in her own idea, Arizona didn't seem to notice the reservation from her fiancée.
"Wait," Mentioning the mother, Callie suddenly realized that their lunch companions were gone for quite a while. "Where are your parents?"
"I kinda asked Mark to help getting you to talk to me. That's why he... well, kept them over there." Smiling sheepishly, Arizona tilted her head to the direction behind the brunette. Callie was surprised to find the Robbins and Mark was sitting in another table far away, and they all had eyes on them. "How about, we go to my parents for dinner tonight, and then I help you pick up the stuff from the hotel?"
"Arizona, I don't..." Callie shook her head. Not because she didn't want to go back to the apartment from the hotel, just... But the blonde cut her off mid sentence.
"Yes, you are coming home with me. Our home doesn't feel like home anymore since you aren't there. Tonight we are gonna open a bottle of wine. And if you aren't too tired, we can..."
Arizona already had the activities of the evening formed in her head, but a Nick shape tornado whirled into the cafeteria interrupted her.
"Arizona!" The man yelled as soon as he found the one that he was looking for. His expression changed slightly when he found the women were holding hands. "Hey Callie, I'm glad you two have made up."
"Thanks Nick." The blonde looked back at Nick irritatingly. "But why are you shouting?"
"Abby... no, Amelia said we have to go to mom's room now." Remembering why he was running to find the Robbins, Nick said hurriedly. He saw the older Robbins in the other side of the cafeteria and waved them over.
"Why? What does that mean?" Arizona asked.
"An intern slipped the scans into the on-call room. Amelia looked at that and..." Anxious to get the blonde to move, Nick didn't realize he let the little secret between him and Amelia slipped out his lips.
"Wait wait, I'm not following." Sharing a confused look with Callie, Arizona asked again. "What on-call room?"
"We were in an on-call room." The man scratched the back of his neck, trying to hide his blush. "The intern found her and..."
"What were you doing in an on-call room with Amelia?" Callie was a bit puzzled, but her face lit up after meeting a smirking smile from the blonde. "Oh? You and Amelia?"
"They hooked up last night." Arizona whispered loudly before her parents came closer to them. "And she didn't even give him her real name."
"That's... it's not the time to talk about that!" Nick stamped his foot and pulled the blonde up with force. "Amelia read the scans and said they have to operate right now!"
"Now?" Barbara heard the last part of this conversation and gasped. So did the rest of the group.
"Yes, now! We need to go!" Nick exclaimed, and led the Robbins toward the exit.
"Callie, I..." Arizona turned back to her fiancée, and got a nod of understanding.
"Go. I have to go check on a patient first. I'll come find you when I'm done."
"Mr. Donovan, how are you?" Callie entered the room with a smile. Her mood was absolutely better than the last time she met with her patient, and the couple in the room had sensed that.
"That is a bright smile, Dr. Torres." Mr. Donovan teased the surgeon, breathing in short gasps.
"Thank you, I just kinda sort out the problem with..." The resident's smile fell slightly when she glanced at the machine. "Your BP is way too low. Are you in pain?"
"I..." The patient tried to answer, but a breath chocked in his throat and he started to cough. Before Callie could reach to his bedside, blood spurted all over the bed from his mouth.
"We have a code blue!" The brunette yelled over her shoulder asking for help. The machine was beeping like crazy signaling the BP was dropping rapidly. Nurses rushed into the room trying to stabilize the patient.
"What is happening?" Mrs. Donovan was wailing hysterically. She tried to run to her husband but a nurse held her tight.
"What's happening?" Callie asked herself. Barking orders to the nurses, she grabbed the chart and scanned through it quickly. The last input was the blood thinners that she ordered for the patient.
"I am dying..." Mr. Donovan gasped into the oxygen mask. A chill went through the tall resident's spine as she realized...
"Oh god... he's bleeding internally."
"The new scans show that the tumor's invaded the optic chiasm. It will be impossible to resect in it entirely once it goes through the optic apparatus and breaches the hypothalamus." Amelia explained to the family. "We have to operate now."
Nick was holding the consent form, looking at his trustworthy friend hopelessly. Everything went so fast and he didn't know if it was a right call. Finally, Arizona looked up from the scan and said through her trembling lips.
"It's time, Nick. Ruthie is going to lose her sight once the tumor reaches the optic nerve. And that will be too late to do anything else."
"Okay people, let's wheel the patient to the OR." Derek instructed the nurses after Nick signed the paper, and he followed behind them.
"Derek," Arizona called out, the man stopped his track and looked back. "You can do this, right?"
"It's Amelia's plan. I will assist." Derek nodded to his sister. "Dr. Shepherd is gonna be the lead surgeon."
"Amelia?" The blonde turned to her friend. "You ready for this?"
"Mm-hmm." Amelia nodded with clenched jaw. This was the biggest challenge in her career. Living in the shadow of the great Neuro god Derek Shepherd made her question her ability from time to time. She would never have thought that Derek would take her plan seriously, let alone let her take the lead. That was why she went to Joe's last night. And that was why she followed her distraction to a hotel. Not in a million years would she have known that the one night stand was the son of this patient. Avoiding eye contact with Nick, she asked Arizona. "Are you gonna come in the OR?"
"I..." Arizona looked at her family. As much as she wanted to be in there, she knew her family needed her. "I'll be in the waiting room."
"Time of death, 14:43." Cristina called it after performing CPR for the last 20 minutes. Mr. Donovan flat lined even before she was dragged to the room.
"No!" Mrs. Donovan collapsed in the corner of the room. "It was a simple knee replacement!"
"I am sorry for your loss, ma'am." The cardio resident said to the newly widow when the resident in this case was standing by the wall motionlessly, big brown eyes on the deathly pale face staring fixedly at the corpse on the bed with tears threaten to fall.
"Callie..." Cristina shifted to the side letting the nurses finish their jobs. She tried to reach the brunette, but Callie ran out of the room before she could be stopped.
"This is gonna work, right?" The colonel asked her daughter when she handed over a cup of coffee. They were in the waiting room for nearly two hours, not hearing of anything from the surgical team yet.
"She has it. Amelia has it." Arizona sat down next to her dad. She was nervous, but trying not to show it. She said to her dad, and to herself. "We have to trust her."
"Well, at this point, this is all we can do." The colonel sighed into the hot beverage. He was speaking the truth, but to his daughter's ears, it sounded like another scornful comment.
"Dad, you've treated me like a child who knows nothing. I am a doctor. What do you think I do all day long?" Having enough of the old man's attitude, Arizona faced her father saying huffily.
"Excuse me?" The old man was dumbfounded by his daughter's outburst.
"You were angry that I didn't tell you about Ruthie's tumor. I apologized for that. You wanted another opinion. I let you send the reports to the people you trust. They all said it was a lost cause and finally, my colleagues found a way to operate on it." Arizona flung her arm toward the OR where the team was working on her aunt. "And you're still not pleased. Just tell me, what more do you want me to do, because I will do it."
"Arizona." The colonel warned sternly. He knew his wife was looking at him. Barbara was sitting opposite to them knitting a sweater. It was her way of calming her nerves, but it didn't mean that she was oblivious to the interaction between her husband and daughter.
"Seriously, dad. You are angry with me. Callie is angry with me. I just... I was just trying to do what you taught me, be the good man in a storm!" The indignant blonde shot up from the seat. She couldn't bear the disappointment coming from her father anymore. She needed to walk away, but a firm grip on her wrist stopped her.
"I know that, Arizona." The colonel's face softened. He sighed. "And I am proud of you."
"Then why are being so harsh toward me?" Blue eyes scowled at blue eyes. Arizona just didn't understand.
"I'm not..." The colonel tried to deny it, but a disapproving head shake from his wife signaled him that he couldn't avoid this conversation anymore. He tugged his daughter to sit down. "I took my frustration out on you because you're doing the things that I should be doing, Arizona. I am your father. I'm suppose to be the one taking care of you. I failed Tim, and now I am failing you."
"Dad, you haven't failed me." Quickly sitting back down next to her father, the blonde took her free hand and covered her father's on her wrist.
"Yes, I have. I promised Kurt to take care of his family before he died. You are doing my job and jeopardized your relationship with Callie, Arizona." The colonel shook his head with a bitter smile in the corner of his lips. "That is what made me angry with myself. You and Callie have gone through a lot. And I know how much you love that woman. Asking her to move out, what were you thinking?"
"It wasn't supposed to be liked that, dad." Arizona shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "It was supposed to be for just a few days..."
"Then you should have called me. Why didn't you call me?" The colonel squeezed the slim wrist and asked softly.
"I thought I could handle it." Pink lips pulled to a frown. Her father was right. She should have told her parents before things got out of hand.
"I know you want to take care of Ruthie, and you want to spare me and your mother." The man glanced at his wife. A small smile was hanging on Barbara's face seeing her man finally opened up to their daughter. "I raised a good girl. But we are your parents, Arizona. No matter how old you get, you are still my little girl and it's my job to protect you, to help you."
"Dad, thank you." The blonde wrapped her arms around the old man and buried her face into his neck. Of course she knew her father loved her, but hearing those kind words meant the world to her. She could feel the weight on her shoulders melt away as quiet tears rolling down drenched the collar of her father's shirt. But the colonel didn't let go. He just held his little girl tighter.
"What happened?" Nick walked in the waiting room seeing the father and daughter locked in an embrace, and the reddened blue eyes were giving him a scare. "Something's wrong with the surgery?"
"No, we were just talking." Arizona wiped off the tear stains timidly. "Hey, where have you been? I turned around and you were gone."
"I went to the little chapel down the hall." The young man shrugged nonchalantly before sitting down next to Barbara. The Robbins shared a knowing gaze but said nothing. They were not church going people and they didn't pray, but it was not a bad idea to get a little bit of peace.
They remained silence, until the door of the OR opened and Lexie walked out from there.
"They sent me to update..." The young resident was going to brief the family, a pager went off disturbed them.
Quickly reached for the pager, Arizona frowned. She wasn't supposed to get any pages today. And when she looked at the message, a puzzled look on her face made her mother question.
"Something wrong?"
"No, it's just... strange. Callie's paging me to an on-call room." Shoving the pager in her pocket, the blonde surgeon nodded to Lexie. "I'll check about that later. Dr. Grey, how did the surgery go?"
Lexie explained the procedures that the team had performed so far, but she could see that 3 out of the 4 people in front of her didn't really understand what she was talking about.
"What I'm saying is, there's nothing to worry about, yet. I should get back in there." Giving the family a polite smile, Lexie turned back to the OR.
"What was she talking about, Arizona?" Nick asked with a furrow on his forehead. He just saw the resident's mouth moving and white noise entered his ears, none of the words made sense to him.
"They are about to resect the tumor. They had a pre-OP map help identify the landmark for placing the radioactive seeds in a precise position." The blonde took a deep breath calming her nerve down. She was worried but she knew she had to be strong for the family. "But now they're foreseeing a shift after removing the tumor."
"What does that mean?" The colonel asked.
"Well..." Arizona gestured everyone to sit down, and struggling to find the right way to explain it. "Imagine... a mudslide or an earthquake. They are going to use the ultrasound to map out the shift..."
She had forgotten about the page she just got.
Callie's head snapped up while the door opened. She sniffed loudly when she realized the one entering the room was not the one she was expecting.
"Callie..." Cristina sighed heavily. Sympathy was written all over her feature. "Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay? I just killed someone." The brunette wiped off the non-stopping tears with the back of her hand. "I just killed someone's husband. How can I be okay?"
"It was a mistake. You didn't know he had an internal bleeding. It wasn't your fault." The Asian leaned against the door. Comforting people was never her strong suit. But Callie was her intern, and Callie was her friend. She had to try even if she didn't want to.
"It was! I killed him!" Callie exclaimed before burying her face in her palms, sobbing loudly making Cristina roll her eyes.
"We are doctors. We aren't god. Things happen and..."
"It happened because of me, Cristina!" The brunette cut her resident off with another cry. "It was a simple knee replacement! He didn't have to die if I..."
"Stop blaming yourself! It was a mistake. And can you please stop crying?" Cristina heaved another sigh. "You need Robbins. Have you told her yet?"
"I paged her..." Callie said between hiccups.
"I'll go find her." Cristina opened the door about to step out, but after taking another look at the distressed woman in the room, she knew she couldn't leave Callie alone. She called the first light blue scrub wearing surgeon in sight. "Hey, Murphy."
The intern startled when the resident called her from the other side of the hallway. She jogged toward Cristina at a fast pace.
"Murphy, go to the waiting room on the surgical floor, find Dr. Robbins and bring her to here as quickly as you can." Cristina ordered quickly.
"Why?" Leah poked her head into the room, curious to see a crying Torres inside.
"I'm a resident and you are a second time intern, you do what I say." The resident shifted to block the intern's line of sight, determined finger pointed to the elevator. "Go, get Robbins to here."
"Dr. Herman?" Arizona was still talking to her parents and Nick in the waiting room. Out of the corner of her eye, she was surprised to see the tall Fetal surgeon escorting a gurney toward the OR. She ran toward her mentor. "What's going on?"
"Mrs. Zussman's baby is in distress. I am going to perform an emergency C-section in order to save both her and her baby now." Herman answered without stopping her track, entering the scrub room with the blonde behind her.
"She isn't supposed to deliver the baby for another week." Arizona watched the surgical team settle the patient in the OR through the window, the numbers on the machine didn't look good. "Is Graham going to assist?"
"He won't be here for another hour. We don't have time." Herman shook her head.
"I'm scrubbing in with you." Arizona pulled out the cap from her pocket and started tying it behind her head. The attending looked at her with widened eyes.
"Don't you have to be with your family?"
"This is my patient. And you need another set of hands." The blonde picked up a bar of soap and stepping on the water. "Just... send someone to inform my family in the waiting room."
"Hey Leah," Stephanie grabbed her friend's arm from behind when the intern exited the elevator with a moping face. "You're not scrubbing in any surgeries now, are you? I just finished a long surgery with Webber and now I need caffeine. Wanna go with me?"
"Sure, why not? No one wants me in their OR anyway." Leah murmured under her breath. She pointed her thumb over her shoulder to the waiting room saying sourly. "But first I need to find Robbins. Yang ordered me to find her like I'm a freaking messenger. I failed my intern exam, and now she's treating me even worse than anyone."
"For what? She has a pregnant patient?" The resident asked whilst they walked side by side down the hall to the waiting area.
"I don't know. And I don't care." The intern knew, and she truly didn't care. Looked around the waiting room and found no sign of the blonde surgeon, Leah didn't even care to ask around. She tugged her friend and returning to where she came from. "Well, Dr. Robbins is not here. Yang told me to come here to find Robbins and she's not here. Nothing I can do. Let's go for coffee, I need it too."
"Listen to me, Callie. Mistakes happened, this is the job. This is how we learn not to do the same mistakes again. Do you here me?" Cristina was sitting side by side on the bed with Callie. The wailing had stopped and now the brunette just stared emotionless into distance. "This one is going to haunt you forever but you are going to move pass this, be a better doctor the next time."
"How? I just killed a man." Callie responded with a brittle sneer.
"Stop saying you killed him. You have to..." The Asian tried again, but the beeping from her pager cut her off. "Damnnit, I have a surgery in 10 minutes. Listen, stop blaming yourself and... Robbins should be here soon. Just, calm down and stop blaming yourself, okay? Callie?"
Cristina closed the door behind her after the glazing brown eyes finally looked up, and gave her a weak nod in return.
"You did a good job, Robbins." Herman dried her hands with a blue towel, a proud smile on her face. "It wasn't easy to control the post-partum hemorrhage in that condition. You were good."
"Thank you. I have a good teacher." The blonde smiled back. The patient had massive hemorrhaging during surgery and it took them quite some time to have it under control. She was glad that she was there to help.
"Remove your lips from my ass and get back to your family. I'll take care of the post-OP." The tall surgeon said teasingly. She added before walking out of the scrub room. "Good luck to your aunt."
Arizona checked the time after threw the towel in the bin. She was there for almost 2 hours, they should have another update from Ruthie's team anytime now. Quickly walking toward the waiting room, she almost ran into Cristina who just came out of another OR.
"Arizona? What are you doing in here?" Small eyes widened as big as they could go.
"I had a surgery with Herman. We saved the mom and her baby." Arizona gave her a small smile and then continued down the hall, but Cristina stopped her.
"How is Callie? Have you found her?"
"Oh shit! I forgot about her page." Arizona spun around with her mouth agape. "Wait, you knew she paged me?"
"Oh my god, Robbins!" Cristina shook her head, speaking with a whine.
"Callie! Callie! I know you're in there, open the door please?" Arizona ran to the on-call room after Cristina told her what had happened. Callie was long gone.
Her first through was her fiancée would be at Joe's drinking but she wasn't there. Joe said he hadn't seen Callie for days and she believed him. Maybe, since they talked about moving back to the apartment, maybe Callie was home... Nope, she wasn't there. Therefore, here she was, standing outside Callie's hotel room knocking on the door for the last few minutes.
All the while, she kept calling the brunette's cellphone but it went straight to the voice mail.
"Callie, I am sorry I missed your page. Please, open the door." No sound. "At least give me a sign or something, let me know you're in there? Throw a lamp or... open the door? Please?"
A cleaning lady passed by and giving her a curious glance. The blonde stopped the maid and asked hurriedly.
"Can you open the door for me? I live here and I forgot my key..."
"Sorry, ma'am." The maid answered firmly. Of course she was not allowed to open the door for anyone claiming that they lived in the room. "If you need any help, you can go down to the lobby..."
Arizona took off before the woman finished. Yes, she could get the front desk clerk to give her the key.
"Which room, ma'am?" The man behind the reception asked.
"1105, Callie... Calliope Torres. She's the one checked in but my name should be in there too, Arizona Robbins." Long fingers were drumming on the desk impatiently. "I have a key but I left it in another pocket. You just need to give me another one and I..."
"1105..." The clerk looked up from the computer screen, meeting with the anxious blue eyes. "I'm sorry Miss Robbins. Miss Torres checked out 2 days ago."
"What?"
A/N 2: Like I said to calzonaforever35 - I'm going to rip out everyone's heart and crush it in the evil queen style *laughing evilly while walking away...*