This chap is rated M
/ /
Jack Campbell walked over to the table Callie was sitting at and plopped down. He was a tall man, athletic with dark brown hair, and sparkling green eyes.
"You look mighty proud of yourself today, Torres," Jack said with a slight Scottish brogue.
"Arizona and I were just texting to confirm out plans to go out for a drink tonight," Callie explained to the head of the trauma department.
"Aye, that would put that proud look on your face," Jack chuckled as he took a fork full of salad.
Callie rolled her eyes at him before taking a bite of her own salad. "I'm falling in love with her again, Jack."
"I have three ex-wives back in Scotland you couldn't pay me to have a meal with much less fall for again. If you are able to recapture that passion and love, you best grab it tight," Jack said as he patted her on the back. "You're a fair shake less miserable than when you came here."
Callie snorted at his comment. "You tricked three women into marrying you?"
"Aye," Jack chuckled. "Mary and I were wed when I was in medical school. Lasted less than six months. Then when I was a few years out, it was Katie for two years. Sarah was for about three months before I came cross the pond. I am good at getting the lasses to marry me but not very good at getting them to stay. But your lass seems to be invested in staying at your side."
"You could stay that, yeah," Callie took another bite of her salad. She had gotten drunk and spilled more than she wanted to Jack one night about her time back in Seattle. "I'm falling back in love with you, and I know she feels the same."
"Well," Jack smiled bright as he held up his cup of tea. "To falling back in love with what once was yours then."
"I'll drink to that," Callie tapped her bottle of water to his cup.
"Tell me more about this lass of yours?" Jack asked. "You told me about the ending of things, but you never told me about the lass herself."
Callie's smile was turned up to ten at the opportunity to tell Jack about Arizona. "She's funny even if she doesn't always know she's being funny. She has these bright blue eyes and these dimples that make me swoon every time. She has this big heart that had some scars on it, some I put there myself, but she is so full of compassion. And she's a great mom to our daughter. Just watching her parent Sofia and the way that she is so kind and caring makes me melt a little."
Jack ate as Callie explained Arizona Robbins to him. She sounded to him something of a perfect match for his friend even if they had broken apart before.
"We're hurt each other, you know? But now it's like all the scars are healed over and we've finally learned how to be around each other the way we were when we were happiest. She knows me inside and out, and I know her too, which used to be too much, too suffocating, but now just feels warm," Callie swooned a little as she looked down at her plane with a hint of a blush on her cheeks.
"One day, sooner than later I think, you'll marry that woman again. As sure as I sit here," Jack chuckled before crunching into his apple. "An open bar and an invitation would be much obliged for this poor Scotsman."
"From what the nurses say when they think the doctors aren't listening, you do alright," Callie laughed.
"I will only sleep with a woman if I wouldn't buy her a pint and watch a football match with her," Jack winked. "It's why and two of us have stayed out of each other. I have no doubt you could down a pint and cheer on the Rangers with the best of my mates."
"Sofia really likes soccer," Callie noted.
"You Americans and your love of that word," Jack rolled his eyes with a smile. "Next time I go home I'll get your girl a scarf from the best club in Scotland."
"Thank you." Callie picked her try up as they two handed to toss their trash and get back to work.
/
Callie walked in to the bar where she and Arizona were meeting for a drink. It wasn't Joe's but no place in the city ever would be. She ran a hand through her hair then shoved her hands in her leather jacket's pockets while looking around for Arizona. She slipped through the moderate crowd, finding Arizona sitting at the end of the bar. She had rocked a risky surgery that would likely give a teenager the use of his right leg going forward and was in the perfect mood for a bit of fun.
Callie stood behind Arizona while the blonde was distracted over something on her phone. She leaned in to press a kiss just behind Arizona's ear while wrapping an arm around her waist.
"I thought I told you to leave, Calliope will be here any time."
The line was out of Arizona's mouth before she could take it back. Callie's brain froze as Arizona held her breath. For a moment neither moved as they both processed the comment.
Arizona's mind raced. How could she be so foolish to insinuate cheating with everything they went through? Where had that joke even come from? Her pulse raced as she tried to find the words to dig her out of this mess. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
Finally, the tension was broken by Callie's low chuckle.
The sound caused Arizona to relax just slightly but her guards were still up. She tilted her head forward while Callie pulled her more firmly back.
"At some point, we have to laugh about the stuff we've shed too many tears over," Callie said as shepressed a kiss to the back of Arizona's neck before nipping slightly.
Arizona breathed out when Callie took the barstool next to her. She sucked one back in when Callie's hand slid up her right thigh with her fingers running up and down the seam of her jeans on the inside of her thigh. The way Callie could trigger a near automatic reaction just by putting her hand against her thigh was something Arizona would never take for granted again.
"I missed this so much," Arizona said while looking into Callie's eyes.
"I did too." Callie leaned over to kiss her before stealing her glass and downing the rest of the vodka tonic. She ordered them each a drink when the bartender came over.
"So, we've moved on to the part of the relationship where we take each other's drinks, have we?" Arizona's eyes challenged while her smile showed off just how wonderful she thought it was.
"Yup," Callie crunched on a piece of ice. "Stealing drinks and picking on each other and you always taking the last fry off my plate."
Arizona leaned against Callie before twisting slightly to press a kiss to her neck. "I will always take the last fry and you will always let me. It's one of the things I love about you the very most. You making sure I have the last fry."
Callie slid her hand up to the back of Arizona's neck to carefully knead her muscles there. If she closed her eyes, she knew she could transport herself back in time to years ago on any number of nights at Joe's just like this.
But the thing that struck Callie was how much she didn't want to go backwards. She wanted to stay in this moment where Arizona was her girlfriend and not the wife that broke her heart. She wanted to stay where she felt more comfortable in her skin and not when she still had a niggle in the back of her brain. This present beat the past even if people she missed only lived in the past now.
As Arizona sat sideways on her seat, Callie turned her head so her cheek was pressed to Arizona and she could whisper in her ear. She wanted to say things to Arizona and doing so here felt somehow safer than in either of their apartments. "I'm in love with you, Arizona Robbins. I am in love with the woman who's sitting here with me in this bar." She ran her fingers up Arizona's thigh again as she spoke. "Who I was and who you were in the past loved each other too. But we messed up. You and I messed up, and we know it. And now we get to do better, be better. And I'm going to, because I am so in love with you, Arizona. Bone deep."
Arizona scanned the room as Callie talked to keep herself from grabbing her and pulling her to the bathroom. This tone in Callie's voice, the way she sounded so hopeful and assured did things to Arizona that flushed her cheeks at the thought. "I have been deeply, madly, wonderfully this in love twice in my life. Happens that both times were to the same woman," she whispered against Callie's ear as her eyes kept moving. "I don't how not to be in love with you, Calliope. I can do so many things well, but I can't not love you. I can't not find your hand even if it's miles and years after I should have reached for it. You are part of my very soul."
Callie turned and kissed Arizona's cheek while reading out to grab her drink. She sipped it before looking at Arizona with a warm smile on her lips and a sparkle in her eye.
"Remember when our biggest issue was which apartment we were going to have sex in that night?" Callie laughed at how simple those times had been.
"We'll be back to that problem as soon as we start having sex again," Arizona pointed out. "This time we have a kid to wrangle."
"At some point you and me are going to have to start doing that again." Callie's hand slid higher on Arizona's thigh at the mention of sex. While the making out and feeling each other up after Sofia was sleeping out elsewhere had been fun, it was starting to lead to more frustration than fun.
"You miss it?"
"You don't?"
Arizona let out a snort at the question. "Like you wouldn't believe."
"Oh, I think I'd believe," Callie said in a low voice. "I think I'd totally believe."
Arizona closed her eyes before resting her forehead to the side of Callie's head. "I'm scared, Calliope. Because I know the sex between us is going to be fantastic. And right now we're talking and having dinners and things are good. They are so good. I don't want to have things go back to when we used sex to hide things or cover things or as a reason not to talk. But God, do I want to take you to bed."
Callie shivered at the want in Arizona's voice. It always lowered just slightly when she talked about anything to do with the bedroom. It was one of Callie's favorite things. "We are still going to talk and we're still going to go to dinner and have them with Sof. We have to be brave, Arizona. Because you're right. The sex is going to be mind blowing, but it's not going to fix our issues if we have any. We just have to keep making the effort we have been."
"I can be brave," Arizona whispered. "I can totally be brave with you."
"Stay over tonight? Sofia is at a sleepover and we can pick her up tomorrow and go to the park," Callie asked while pulling away so she could look at Arizona's face to gauge her reaction.
There was nothing to gauge as a smile let up Arizona's face. "Calliope, are you asking me to go to bed with you?" She asked with as much innocence as she had in her.
"Yup," Callie laughed. "I am. Think you're up for it?"
"Oh, I think you'll know, Calliope," Arizona said before leaning in to kiss her.
Callie returned the kiss happily before reaching for her drink again. "We've come a long way from you picking me up at Joe's."
"I did not pick you up at Joe's," Arizona laughed. "I planted the seed of us at Joe's. If I had picked you up that night, it would have been way more fun than both of us going home alone."
Callie chuckled and shook her head at Arizona. "It didn't cross my mind at the time that's what you were doing. But to this day, I haven't had someone put moves on me that were quite that smooth."
"I guess I have to new challenge for the upcoming weeks, don't I?" Arizona asked playfully.
"You still think you can pick me up?" Callie challenged.
"Oh, Calliope," Arizona grinned. "I know I can." She slid from her seat when she saw someone she knew. "Stay here so I have a reason to excuse myself? Dr. Phelps is sweet but the man talks forever." She gestured with her head over at a man in his mid 50's sitting alone at a high top.
Callie patted Arizona's butt as she passed by. When Arizona looked back at her, Callie just smiled back before turning back to face the bar.
It didn't take long after Arizona walked away for a handsome man with dark hair and a charming smile to come hit on Callie. And standing talking to Damion Phelps, Arizona had the perfect vantage point to see it. Thankfully as good of a doctor as Phelps was, he also was oblivious to those around him. He went on and on about … something Arizona couldn't care less about as she watched the charming man - Arizona thought he might be a banker or lawyer or something like that - hit on Callie.
Arizona turned her attention back to Phelps and smiled and nodded. Thankfully he kept going on as if Arizona was giving him her undivided attention. Her eyes drifted back to Callie who didn't seem in any rush to have the stranger go away.
A deep, dark part of Arizona wondered if Callie was doing this as some sort of a perverted test of her jealousy. She dismissed that after a moment though. While Callie had been petty in the past, she really did believe they were starting over now. To bring that sort of pettiness in would be a torpedo to what they were building.
Finally, Arizona was able to dismiss herself after the handsome stranger ran his hand over Callie's back. It seemed to trigger something as Callie seemed to dismiss the man as Arizona crossed the bar.
By the time Arizona reached Callie, she had fished enough money to cover the drinks they had with a sizable tip. Her hand slid into Callie's as she leaned in to whisper in her ear.
"Come with me," Arizona said with a low growl in her voice.
Callie's eyebrow raised at the aggression in Arizona's tone, but she followed after her with their hands linked. It was rare to see Arizona be so nakedly jealous, but that was the only cause that Callie could attribute Arizona's actions. There was a thrill at the unintentional provocation.
It wasn't until Arizona had Callie pinned against the door in some little used storage closet at the bar that she could see just the effect her being flirted with had. Her head hit the door as Arizona latched on to her neck.
"I trust you," Arizona mumbled against Callie's neck in between sucking on the delicate skin there. "This is not about me trusting you or the bisexual thing or any of that."
"No?" Callie grunted as Arizona's teeth scrapped against her skin. Her arm wrapped against Arizona when she felt her leaning a little too heavily against her. She knew Arizona's balance while pinning her would be a new feeling. Keeping her upright was in both of their interests.
"I trust you," Arizona said again. Her hand tugged at Callie's shirt before it slipped under it to cover one of Callie's breasts over her lacy bra. "I just need to remind myself that you're really mine again."
"Remind away," Callie moaned as she kept Arizona firm against her right side. Between the lips on her neck and the hand currently tracing over the scar on her chest in between palming one breast and then the other, her head was swimming and her body overheating.
"You have no idea how many nights I thought about you," Arizona said against her neck before kissing down to where it met her shoulder. "Thought about how you always knew what to touch, where to nip, when to ease back. It was like you had a playbook that no one else has ever been given."
Callie's bra was pushed up so Arizona had access to touch without any silk under her palm. It wasn't the most comfortable feeling but how good it felt to have Arizona's hand against her, so Callie wasn't about to complain. Her hand slip from Arizona's waist to her ass to palm it as she pulled her tighter in.
"You're teasing."
"I'm getting reacquainted."
"Get reacquainted faster."
Arizona grinned against Callie's neck at the request. Her hand left Callie's chest to pop the bottom on her jeans and drag the zipper down. Her hand wasted no time sliding inside while she leaned up just a little so she could whisper into Callie's ear.
"I dreamed of this. So, anything out yet many nights I dreamed of another chance to touch you again. I felt so guilty for thinking about your body after what I put you through but I couldn't stop. I knew every line, every curve, every inch of it."
Arizona nibbled against Callie's earlobe in between confessions as her fingers explored the wetness they found. She couldn't keep the grin off her face the proof of just how much Callie still wanted her coating her fingers. It was thrilling to have proof instead of just having to believe on faith.
"Arizona." Callie's voice was breathy as she rocked her hips forward against Arizona's fingers when they slid inside her. "I thought of you too. I couldn't get you out of my head. I didn't want to get you out of my head."
There wasn't very much room to work with jeans restricting her but Arizona managed to find enough space. Her hand rocked with just enough force and years of practiced precision to pull out whimpers and moans from Callie.
"Arizona." Callie head dropped forehead rested against Arizona's as she sucked in a breath as she felt a knot coil low in her belly. "Please."
They would have nights to tease each other later. Nights when they spent time just pushing each other to the edge before drawing them back only to push them a little closer the next time. This was not one of those moments. This wasn't a tender moment of reconnection or teasing each other just to see how high they could take the other.
No, this was Arizona fucking Callie against a closet door.
And speed was a factor.
It would have been funny to Arizona how easily she remembered how to get Callie off quickly when she needed to if it didn't almost painfully turn her on at the same time. Her own need had to be pushed back as she curled her fingers and rubbed her thumb against Callie in a rhythm she had perfected a half decade before. She was pleased to see like an old locker combination it worked like a charm.
Callie dropped her head to Arizona's neck to try and muff the low guttural groan that spilled from her lips as she finished. Her arm tightened around Arizona as she held her firmly against her, using Arizona to stand as much as she was making sure Arizona would stay standing.
"Did you really get yourself off to thoughts of me after everything I put you through?" Arizona asked.
"Yeah, I tried not to, but the feelings I had for you wouldn't fade. Did you really get yourself off to me after what I did?"
"I did."
Arizona rubbed the back of Callie's neck with her left hand before pulling out her right. She stepped back while licking her fingers clean. She knew what the sight use to do to Callie and hoped it gave a similar reaction now.
Callie leaned heavily against the door as she watched Arizona clean her fingers almost lazily. She managed to fix her bra and do up her jeans without fumbling too much before pulling her in for a long, slow, deep kiss.
"Come home with me? Please just come home with me?" Callie whispered against Arizona's lips.
Arizona smiled as she pulled back and reached for Callie's hand to lace their fingers together. "I have never wanted to go home with you more." She smiled with her head tilted.
They managed to get out of the bar without anyone stopping them or seemingly knowing what just happened between the two. Such a seismic shift took place between them and not a single person other than the two knew anything at all was different between them. A private joy in a return to a well enjoyed intimacy.
Callie unlocked the front door before tossing her keys in the bowl she kept near it. Her jacket was hung before she gathered Arizona up in her arms. Arms low on Arizona's waist, she smiled as she looked into bright blue eyes.
Callie's hand slid under Arizona's shirt to rest on her lower back. "I don't want to make a bunch of promises tonight or jump too far forward. I've done that too much in my life. I've done that with you too much in our relationship," She said in a low, soft voice. "But I promise that I'm in this, Arizona. I promise I'm yours, and you're mine and this time none of the rest of it is going to matter. I've lived a life where I wasn't with you anymore, and I could get by but nothing feels as right as standing here with you."
"I love you and you love me and none of the rest of it matters," Arizona whispered. She leaned against Callie before closing her eyes as she pictured the last time she said those words. How different things had been and yet they both stood here preparing to take an unknown path together. Again.
"You going to rip my clothes off again?" Callie asked with a low chuckle.
"Maybe," Arizona answered. She lifted her head back up so she could look into Callie's eyes. "I was wrong when I said I can't live without you. I can. I can go to work and I can save babies, and I can go out with friends. I can even have another girlfriend and make plans for the future with her. But I don't want to. And maybe that's more real. Maybe that's more important. Maybe that makes us more solid. Because it's a choice to be together. A choice to hold hands and face forward."
"I choose you to be the one with whom I spend my life," Callie whispered part of her wedding vows.
"Calliope," Arizona felt herself get choked up at the call back to one of the best days of her life. "I choose you, too."
Callie guided Arizona to the bedroom without another word.
/
Callie felt far too old to be up at three in the morning when there was no medical emergency to attend to. But the way her body ached, the feeling Arizona resting her head against her shoulder as they laid naked in bed made her more awake than caffeine ever had.
"You're incredible," Arizona laughed.
"So are you," Callie said with a grin.
"We're have years of sex to make up for not having."
"We'll take a sexcation to Spain like you wanted years ago."
Arizona partly sat up and looked down at Callie with a playful smile. "Yeah?" She asked. "Sangria and bikini's?"
"Sangria and a private beach, so we don't have to wear them," Callie countered.
"You are a genius," Arizona said before bending down to kiss Callie before sitting back up with a hand on other side of Callie to keep her half over her. "But are we really going to leave the country and not take Sof?"
"No," Callie shook her head. "But if we go to Spain, then we can make arrangements for a nanny, or have my father come with us or even get Kepner and Avery to come and take turns watching the kids for each other."
"I want people to know. My parents, your father, our friends, Sof. I want people to know how happy we are, how much healthier and stable," Arizona shifted to lay back down with her head on Callie's shoulder.
"I sense a but coming," Callie teased.
"How do we tell people who watched us rip each other apart that we decided it just doesn't matter anymore? How do we tell our friends that we asked to testify in our custody hearing that we figured our crap out?" Arizona whispered as her arm wrapped around Callie's waist as Callie's wrapped around her shoulders.
"It's going to suck," Callie said flatly. "Telling Karev and Bailey and Meredith and everyone else that put up with us destroying each other because we couldn't stop will suck. It's going to suck to tell them how happy we are and get less than their enthusiastic support."
"I sense a but coming," Arizona parroted Callie.
"We're going to do it anyway. Because Bailey is the one that stood up and pronounced us wife and wife. And maybe next time we decide to put on dresses and say vows to each other she'll go online and get ordained and do it again. And Karev is your guy no matter if you are on the same coast or country or surgery speciality. And Meredith and the rest who were there when we were a boring, happily married couple, they might roll their eyes, but I think they'll get it. And if they don't, then they don't. And we're still together so we win."
"You want to marry me again one day?" Arizona asked with a sense of wonderment in her voice.
"One day when we're both ready," Callie said. "There is something powerful in being able to say you're my wife."
"There is," Arizona agreed. "It'll take some time for us to be ready, but I want to work toward marriage. You're the only person I want to call my wife. You're the only person I want to pick out cake flavors and flowers or bridesmaid dresses with."
"So, eloping is out of the question?" Callie chuckled.
"We're not doing Vegas. A person gets one of those in a lifetime and you cashed yours in," Arizona said with a roll of her eyes. "But I might be convinced to have a wedding somewhere beautiful with a very small group of people there."
"Not Vegas," Callie agreed as she flashed back before shaking her head to clear it. "I did that once and it's an experience I can live without repeating."
Arizona leaned up to kiss Callie's cheek. "We'll figure it out when it's time," she promised before rolling over to turn the bedside lamp off. She rolled back to cuddle against Callie.
"Alarm is already set," Callie whispered in the now dark room. "Are you still a perky morning person?"
"Yeah, maybe more than I was," Arizona settled her hand on Callie's side with her thumb able to stroke the end of Callie's C-section scar that she always found. For the first time in a very long time, she had a new moment she could think about. A moment of joy instead of devastation in hindsight. She knew she'd sleep well tonight.
"Terrific," Callie sighed. "Sofia is too. I'm doomed."
"You'll survive," Arizona said with a sleepy voice already.
"Yes, I will," Callie whispered before dropping a kiss to Arizona's hairline before letting sleep overtake her.
/
One of the major differences between living on the west coast and the east coast was the weather. Not just the temperature or the Pacific vs the Atlantic but the rain and the storms. New York had thunderstorms more often than Seattle ever did. Storms that would pop up and darken the sky with thick black clouds, loud thunder, and dazzling lightning before leaving as soon as they came. Others lingered for hours, dumping rain down while whispers of thunder rumbled low in the background and whips of lightning lit the sky.
Around three in the morning, Arizona woke up as a thunderclap boomed outside. She felt a deep sense of dread as she rolled from her side where she was facing the windows to press her face into Callie's shoulder.
"Whatsit.." Callie mumbled without opening her eyes as she felt Arizona cling to her.
"Storm," Arizona choked out. She felt her heart racing, her left leg aching, her breathing coming hard and fast against Callie's body as she trembled. The room became almost unbearably hot as a wave of panic washed over her.
Callie woke up at the fear in Arizona's voice like a bucket of cold water had been splashed on her. Her right arm tightened around Arizona's waist to pull her flush against her.
"Close your eyes, honey," Callie whispered as she pressed featherlight kisses to Arizona's brow. "Breathe in through your nose, breathe out through your mouth."
Arizona didn't stop shaking, but she did as Callie suggested. Her eyes closed tightly and she tried to take slower breathes in through her nose and out through her mouth. The hand in the middle of her back under the shirt she wore and Callie's solid frame against her helped ease some of the panic swirling in her chest.
"I know you're scared, but you're not in danger," Callie said in a calm voice despite her own fear over the moment.
"Right, right, I'm not in the woods," Arizona nodded almost franticly against Callie's shoulder.
"You're safe in bed with me, Arizona. You are safe and Sofia is safe, and I am safe," Callie said to try and ground her in the moment.
"Right, safe. I'm safe. I'm safe," Arizona repeated over and over again as her heart rate started to settle and her breathing came a little easier. She still shook a bit as the knot right behind her ribs started to loosen up.
Callie rubbed slowly over Arizona's back as they breathed together while she came down from her panic attack. Whatever she could do to make her feel safe and protected she would. There were too many nights she suffered with her in the same bed wordlessly for Callie's taste.
"Thank you," Arizona said before clearing her throat. Her body no longer shook even as a flash of lightning temporarily lit up the bedroom.
Callie bent her head to press a soft kiss to Arizona's lips before resting their foreheads together. "I said this to you once before our worlds fell apart but I'm going to say it again now. Whatever you can't do, Arizona, I will."
"Whatever you can't do, I will," Arizona pressed a trio of kisses to the base of Callie's throat. "I didn't let you take care of me before. I didn't trust myself and I didn't trust you the way I should have. The way you trusted me when you were hurt. I'm not perfect but I'm better about that now."
"You are better," Callie agreed with a smile. "I know it's difficult for you to let anyone in, Arizona, but I've got you."
Arizona reached for Callie's hand and brought it down under the blankets to rest at the end of her residual limb. There was a knot just under Callie's palm that she was hoping Callie could get out without them moving too much. "Please?"
"I've got you." Callie started to work the knot out without moving away from Arizona. It wasn't the best angle to get the knot out but it was doable. Callie was careful not to press too hard as she loosened the knot until she felt it release.
"God, you are good with your hands," Arizona moaned slightly before snuggling against Callie when her arm wrapped back around her waist.
"Not the first time you've said that," Callie teased.
"Not the last either." Arizona rested her head close to Callie's.
"Close your eyes and try and get some sleep. I've got you," Callie said through a yawn.
"I love you," Arizona said as she tucked her head back under Callie's chin.
"I love you too, Arizona," Callie whispered back.