AN: So, again, thank you to all my readers/fans of this story! It's a slow burner - I know! Anyways, I am pretty bummed with Grey's currently. Despite Callie's lame departure from the show I am happy for Sara for doing what's in her best interest. I'll keep writing both of my stories because from the looks of it, Calzona will only exist in the realm of FF (which is okay for me). We'll keep the fire alive ;)

Chapter 23 - Did You Hear the Silence?

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You show up there at midnight, didn't even have sex and now you're dating. Exclusively?" Teddy was leaning against the nurse's station, trying to understand exactly what her best friend was saying to her.

"You know Theodora you should just scream it so everyone in the entire hospital hears you." The blonde deadpanned back.

"Wait, who said something about no sex and dating?" Their third roommate came up from behind the desk and sat down in front of the two women.

"Arizona over here is dating someone before even sleeping with them."

"Teddy, you're being dramatic." She rolled her eyes at the pair.

Andrew jumped up and put the back of his hand on Arizona's forehead. "Nope, no fever."

The blonde swatted his hand away, "Andrew. I am fine. Awesome actually."

"Oh god, you actually like this woman. Like, like this woman." Andrew sat back down.

"Yes. And for once in my life I'd like to go into a relationship the correct way. Not the 'let's bang a few times to figure this out.' Besides I'm content with the bubble were in currently."

"What? The bubble of celibacy? Sounds like a waste, but oh you got it bad girl." Andrew teased.

"Seriously Arizona, looking at you is making me sick. But I'm glad you're finally happy and out of your funk." Teddy patted Arizona on the back.

"Ditto. You deserve the best and she apparently makes you happy enough to not want to do the dirty. But what if it's bad sex or something like that? What do you do then Z?" Andrew questioned.

"Andrew shut up. It's not always about sex." Both of her roommates glared at her. "Okay, okay, maybe not only sex. But haven't you ever been with someone before sleeping with them and just know that the sex will be awesome? So you want to build up the anticipation?"

"Yes, and then they leave my bed the following morning."

"Andrew, you're such a pig. What is it with all of my friends being so damn slutty?" Teddy stated.

"Oh, sorry Teddy, not all of us are squeaky clean and slept with all of 3 guys for the last decade."

Arizona couldn't help but laugh at Andrew. It was a factual statement.

"Speaking of your slutty friends, there's an angry Ger-talian lady coming our way." Andrew nodded behind the two doctors.

Two massive hands grabbed the back of either doctor's necks before they could flee the area. "Doctor Robbins and Doctor Altman. The two people who I've been looking for. Can we speak in private? Now."

Andrew shrugged and whispered good luck to the doctors. G dragged the two women into an empty ER room.

"Listen, G whatever it is, I didn't do it." Teddy crossed her arms and stood defiantly.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She cocked her head, "Are you implying you did something you shouldn't have? Because it's interesting you say that." She reached into a suit coat pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Do you know what this is? Arizona? Teddy?"

They both nodded 'no'.

"This is a bill from my health insurance company. Apparently, my sister had surgery here last week. Care to explain this to me?"

And the other shoe finally dropped. Arizona had tried to play around the idea, even dropping hints. But G wanted no part in what Arizona was trying to offer. Teddy pleaded with the woman as well. But nothing stuck.

"Well?" The woman's patience was wearing thin. Both doctors could tell this was something better to be dealt with up front then to ignore it any longer.

Silence. And more silence.

"Your sister got kicked out of rehab. And came up here and was jumped. It's not what you think it is G, please. She really needs you right now." Arizona just blurted it all out in the open.

Her temper reached a new high, "Needs me? She needs help that I cannot provide. Where is she? Her ass is on the next flight to Clearwater."

"G, please. Listen to us. She needs you and not some facility in the middle of Florida. She needs family." Teddy pleaded with the woman.

Silence was the loudest thing amongst them currently. You could hear the anger seething from the tallest woman in the group.

"What do you guys know that I don't know? Because now that I think about it, it's starting to add up as to why everyone was mentioning my sister like I have one. Because now she's magically back in Boston. What the hell is going on?"

Silence, but now Arizona's patience was thin and anger was spiking.

"G, listen. You have a sister. Still. I have NOTHING. I lost my brother. You still have a sister. And you REFUSE to acknowledge her existence. You need to go and see her and stop this, this nonsense! I get she made mistakes but YOU need to help her right them. She's an addict and will never recover if you never help her! YOU are wrong here, YOU need to make this right."

The two women opposite Arizona were surprised by how brash and demanding she had just sounded. It was extremely out of character for Arizona to speak moreover scream at another person. Arizona was even surprised and how harsh she had just sounded. But her friend needed it or else she would never take her damn head out of her ass.

The two doctors just stood there. Waiting for the freak out. The screaming. Neither came. G balled up her fists and released them again. G could answer in one of two ways: she could fight back – keep up the walls she built around her sister or she could try and fix the severed branch of her family tree.

"Okay. Well then, what the fuck am I supposed to do Arizona? Did you forget I am leaving in 10 days or did you plan on babysitting her? She is an addict after all."

In an attempt to defuse the two friends from a screaming match, Teddy chimed in, "G, go see her. Talk to her. While she was here, all she wanted to do was talk to you. Give her that much. She's staying at the halfway house in Roxbury. So, you should go."

Without saying anything else to either doctors she stormed off.

"That went a hell of a lot better than I intended." Teddy said and took a long drag from her coffee.

"Yeah, I really wish she'd bury the hatchet with her sister. And her sister would sober up. God, I was having a great morning until that happened. I hope she isn't mad at me, but she needed to hear that." Arizona pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I doubt she'll care once she talks to Jo-jo. She won't be happy she's home, but the woman needs her family now more than ever."

Silence filled the room once again, only this time the thoughts were geared towards their closest friend, because what if she didn't speak to them ever again for this? What would happen to her sister?

But before the wheel could turn any further, the all too familiar chime of pagers went off.

Emergency in the pit.

Suiting up in their gowns they made way towards the pit. "What's going on Andrew?" The blonde asked her roommate.

"MVA, all I got was a car drove over the sidewalk in Faneuil Hall. Given it's gorgeous out there is going to be a lot of vics. First bus is two minutes out. All hands on deck ladies."

First stretcher rolled in, "Male, 43, complaining of abdominal pain. Vitals stable..." A young paramedic rambled on, listing various vital information to his fellow doctors.

And then autopilot kicked in, it was the harmonious dance trauma doctors knew by heart. Teddy led the first victim to a trauma room.

Second stretcher, "Female, 38, head trauma, unresponsive..." And now was Arizona's turn to go into autopilot.

On the forth or maybe sixth stretcher, Dr. Callie Torres found herself standing over a boy, who couldn't be older than 9. His pelvis and femur were shattered and he was screaming hysterically for his parents.

Completely entranced by the little boy's frantic cries she had to be elbowed by a nurse to snap out of it. She didn't notice the pairs of eyes staring her down waiting for her to stabilize the shattered bones so they could more the child into an OR. The pediatric surgeon opposite her helped and the bone crunching sound sent chills down her spine. The pain became so unbearable for the tiny life below her that he passed out.

Now they were racing against time to save his life.

Running to the elevator Callie couldn't help but wonder where her day took a turn for south. It had started out as a sunny, beautiful October day. She woke up to find her girlfriend entangled in her embrace. The pair spent the night talking about everything and anything. It all just felt so natural with Arizona. She made Callie feel comfortable and safe without even trying.

She was still floating when she walked into the hospital, hand in hand with Arizona. She had a girlfriend, who was an incredibly sexy, intelligent, gorgeous, brave, and kind. Callie was beaming. She never once thought that after the last week of being boxed out be Arizona she would wind up dating the woman – but here she was.

Callie couldn't be any more excited. She decided to look for the woman around the hospital after she finished up her morning consults. Making way to the trauma floor, her pager went off. Great, 911 to the pit. She sprinted down the stairs to the ground level and was met by the gleaming face of Nurse Andrew.

And maybe that's when her morning took a turn for the worst.

Pushing through the sea of people, they got the gurney into an elevator. The pediatric surgeon pulled her out of the elevator and they ran up the stairs to beat the elevator. "Dr. Torres, I hope you're ready for this."

She nodded. It was very rare she saw trauma cases with children. Especially of this nature. You could say this was a freak accident, because it was. But that didn't matter. All she thought of was that little boy looking up at her. Screaming. His eyes filled with terror. His beaming blue eyes so eerily similar to Arizona's.

Silence. She was lost in a storm of thoughts. Silence was her worst enemy. Silence began to consume her mind and flood her head with the screams of a small child. Tearful eyes. Painful eyes. Silence was rocking her core.

Then the slamming of a scrub room door brought her down to reality. She needed to focus on the task at hand.

Across the hall, Dr. Robbins was already planning her steps. Rehearsing every cut, ever potential bleed or organ trauma. The results of a brain bleed. Symptoms of such hematoma. The silence helped her mind settle and focus. A luxury she knew she wouldn't have in Iraq or Afghanistan next year.

"Dr. Toscano, ready to do this?"

"Only waiting for you Robbins, let's go save a life."

Callie knew what the result of crushed bones could lead too. You could go septic. Fragments could cause more damage and organ bleeding. The years of PT. especially in a patient so young. The years and years of reconstructive surgeries required. The metal plates and screws, stints, braces, wheel chairs. It wasn't fair.

Now was time to get the show on the go.

The tiny body was a mangled mess. He was bleeding out at a rapid rate and it was their responsibility to stop the bleeding. To save his short life. To prolong it.

And there she was, standing, watching vitals. Watching the attending pediatric surgeon frantically search for every single bleed in his lower abdomen. Callie held the boy together. Literally. With every passing moment, a little more life was lost from the child. And she couldn't do a damn thing about it.

"Can someone please get me the results of the head CT!?" Dr. Robbins shouted out. She was knuckle deep in this woman's chest cavity, holding a bleed while the doctor opposite her scrambled to get them together.

A nurse brought over the film and held it up. "Dr. Toscano, do you see that?" She didn't even respond, instead Arizona ordered neuro to the OR immediately.

"Okay, abdomen is stable, Torres, Kane, get moving on that pelvis. Nurse! Bring us the abdominal X-rays." The pediatric surgeon began to assist the attending and resident, knowing that time was of the essence, they needed all the assistance they could get.

Both Callie and her attending, Dr. Ernie Kane, another 'ortho-magic-man', started their decent into the pint sized cavity. An x-ray was held above both of their heads, indicating where several splinters of bone were lodged. From the looks of it, the boy's lower half was run over by the vehicle.

They tried, Dr. Kane and Dr. Torres. They tried like hell to save this kid. He had already endured several hours of intensive surgery to stabilize his distorted insides. But now, his heart rate was plummeting. The damage done was too severe. Dr. Torres was moving as fast as possible to remove every last bit and piece of splintered bone.

Buzzing of clippers filled the OR, two nurses began to hack away at thick brunette hair of the patient below them. The blonde effortlessly worked within the chest cavity, never flinching at the sounds of a buzzers shaving away someone's dignity or bone saw humming. The trauma team was always enamored by the way Dr. Robbins moved. Unfazed and smooth. It was like she knew where the damage was before even cutting the patient open.

"Ladies, are you just about done? I need to get this skull opened, now." Dr. Singer stood at the head of the table prepping the skull to relieve the pressure, and stop the bleeding.

"Hang on, something isn't right." Arizona re-examined the area her hand just vacated. "I think I have another bleed, hang on."

"Dr. Robbins there is not time for hanging on. It's now or never!"

There is one sound every doctor shudders for, and it's the sound of a flat line. The sound of your heart beat stopping that signifies your life is gone. And that's what was happening now. A life was being taken away.

"Everybody clear!"

The thudding sound of a body being shocked back into life.

"Another shot of EPI…Clear!"

And again. You hope to hear the faintness of a beep. Anything to signify you are doing your job and doing it right. Anything that will tell you this person under you isn't done fighting.

"I found it! I got it, clamp it, and let's stop this brain bleed." A relieved blonde sighed to herself. "You are not dying under my hands. Dr. Singer, it's all you now."

But sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes, despite all the effort and work you put into saving a life, it just isn't enough. And you have to except that that life may either be an adult, an elderly person, a child or infant alike. A life is lost is there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.

"Dr. Torres! It's done. There's nothing left do."

Callie just stood there with her hands still inside the boy's pelvic region. She blatantly ignored the beep less machines behind her. The eyes staring at her. She wasn't done fighting for this boy but everyone else was.

"Time of death, 14:52"

She looked and noticed her hands were still working, for no particular reason. They were just working. On a lifeless body. The corpse of a child.

Dr. Kane and the pediatric surgeon Dr. Sullivan pulled Callie away from her position. Fully aware that she may or may have not experienced the loss of a patient during surgery. Especially the loss of a child.

Her face was glazed over and her body went into autopilot. She couldn't help but stare back into the room, at the lifeless body she couldn't save. It wasn't the first time she lost a patient on the table but it was her first pediatric case. It wasn't fair.

Dr. Kane instructed the angst stricken woman to take the rest of the afternoon off to regroup, as it was never easy when you lose your first pediatric case.

Instead of going home however, Dr. Torres found solace in another place.

XXX

"Dr. Robbins, you never seize to amaze me. Excellent work in there."

"Thank you Dr. Toscano." Arizona tried to remain humble but she couldn't help but bask in her glory. Besides, Dr. Toscano gave out compliments once a year, so there was that to consider too.

Arizona wanted to share the success of her surgery with her girlfriend, but she couldn't find the woman anywhere. Her phone was off so she figured she could be in the OR. After her shift finally came to an end she decided it was okay for her to venture over to the ortho department.

"Nurse Colleen, have you seen Dr. Torres at all?"

"No Dr. Robbins, she actually was sent off duty around 4, but the last I saw her she said she was going to the chapel. So I'd check there."

Arizona thought to herself. The chapel? Why would she be there? It's 8, there's no way she's still here.

Arizona never went to the chapel inside the hospital, but she knew where it was. Seeing as many of her patient's family's found comfort there she was never able too.

Opening the chapel doors, she found the Latina, sitting in the front. The woman didn't stir when the door opened, instead she sat straight ahead, deep in focus and thought.

Arizona walked up the aisle and rubbed the Latina's back, "Is this seat taken?"

Callie finally looked up at the voice coming above from above her head. It was her girlfriend. And then the water works started again. She was met with the empathic eyes of Arizona, big and blue, just like the small boy who was on her table a few hours earlier. It reminded her of what was lost, what had happened only a short time ago.

She thought if she came to the chapel, she would find some relief in prayer, but it did little to soothe her soul.

Arizona sat down next to the crying woman and held her incredibly close. "Shh, sweet heart, it's okay." She rubbed her back, "What happened Calliope? Look at me please." She attempted to pull back to look at her sobbing girlfriend but was rejected.

"P-please, Ari, don't. Look. Your, eyes. They look just like his." She managed between cries.

Obeying her girlfriend, she held her close, "Whose Calliope?"

"The-the little boy. Arizona, he died. I killed him. I-I-I killed that little boy." Her sobbing became louder.

And now it all clicked for the blonde. She knew about the accident after she completed her story she was informed about the grizzly details of the accident. She was successful, she saved a life. However, not every surgeon was as fortunate as her. The accident killed four people, sent almost another dozen to ICU's around Boston, and injured who knew how many.

"Shh, Calliope, you didn't kill anyone. Okay? It's never easy. It's not fair. But you didn't kill him. You tried. You tried your hardest to save him."

The two women sat in the chapel for another 30 minutes or so before Callie finally calmed down. Having her girlfriend hold her the entire time and whisper sweet nothings and encouraging words to her had helped more than she thought it could. Callie pulled away and dried her eyes.

"It's not fair."

"I know sweetie. It never is. Do you want to spend the night at my place? I only live right down the street from here. We could grab some pizza on the way home. What do you say to that?"

"I'm not hungry. But, yeah, I need to get out of this hospital."

Arizona took the brunette's hand and lead them out of the hospital into the cool fall evening. She stopped by her local pizza place and grabbed a large veggie pizza before going to her apartment. Callie didn't say much of anything. She remained silent the entire trip from the hospital, to the pizza shop, and then to her apartment. The look of utter shame and disappointment was the only thing impressed to her face.

Arizona brought Callie into her room, gave her a pair of old Harvard sweat pants and a Harvard Med shirt. Gave the woman a glass of water and some aspirin. "Here, change, take some aspirin and drink some water. Then come eat pizza in bed with me."

Callie looked up at the woman perplexed, "Why are you doing this?"

"I'd do this for any of my friends Calliope, but especially you, because you're my girlfriend. Despite it only being 24 hours old, I care about you. And you're upset. I know what you're going through. It's okay to be upset. So change, get comfy and come to bed with me. Please?"

Never in her life has anyone treated her with such sincere kindness. Never. It was as if all bad and negative feelings she was going through suddenly vanished, just from her dimply blonde girlfriend giving her a change of clothes and pizza. How could one person be so amazing?

Taking the proffered gesture, she went ahead and changed in Arizona's bathroom. Finishing up and taking two aspirin, she hopped into bed next to the blonde. She wasn't particularly hungry, but ate a slice anyways. They sat and ate their pizza in silence. It was a comfortable silence. Something obtained by a veteran couple, but they had already seemed to master it.

Finishing up their dinner, Arizona brought the leftovers to the kitchen, then crawled back into her bed with Calliope. The brunette still looked sad, and beaten down from the demise of her earlier patient. She wrapped her up close to her body, lightly kissing her forehead and rubbing her back. She couldn't help the swell of emotions coming from her heart in that moment of embrace.

Callie eventually drifted off to sleep in Arizona's arms. It was a small indication, of just how fast and hard both women were falling for one another. How peaceful Callie looked; the worry and stress seemed to fade from her face. How she perfectly fit in Arizona's arms, and nuzzled her head between two breasts so naturally, as if she's slept there a thousand times before. Their breathing was matched, as if two hearts beat as one in that small instance.

Arizona eventually fell into dreamland as well. However her dreams where anything but sweet or magical…in fact, they were the complete and total opposite.

Thank you for reading!