Prompt: So this is attempt number 2 at the 'hot and steamy, yet angsty, post crash' prompt. Think this one is alittle more on point.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy. I just manipulate them to my will. Also, any line or phrase or setting that seems remotely familiar from any other show, movie or book, also not mine. I borrow…
An Anniversary No One Wanted
"Hey, Robbins, I got the labs back for McKenzi and I think we have to go in sooner rather than later." Alex Karev says all in one breathe.
Arizona looks over the report quickly and nods. "You're right, Karev. Good catch. Think you can get in and out before nine?"
The peds fellow checks his wrist watch and nods, "Shouldn't be a problem."
"Alright then." His mentor replies with a smile and leaves the man to go about his job while Arizona marches confidently down her pediatric ward.
"You going tonight?" Cristina Yang as she plops down next to her person.
"Yep. You?" Meredith replies, flipping through one of her intern's chart to make sure he isn't actively trying to kill her patient.
"Hell yeah. …Food and booze? Why wouldn't I?" Yang says, a buzzing in her pocket prompting her to check her phone. After a quick glance she looks back to her friend and asks "Derek?"
"He'll be there." Grey answers.
Standing from her chair, Yang heads off towards her next cardio surgery, calling over her shoulder as she retreats "See you at nine!"
"Hey, what do we got?" Derek asks, stopping next to the ortho surgeon at a computer screen to see an x-ray of someone's spine.
"You tell me… Looks like a transverse process fracture at L3/L4 but see the swelling? I can't tell if its unstable or not." Callie replies, tracing the injury on the screen with a finger.
With a quick glance, Shepherd says "It's unstable for sure. Book an OR, we need to get in there." When he sees Callie check the clock on the wall, he smiles and asks "Got a hot date or something?"
"You're not coming tonight?" Torres asks. "Nine o'clock?"
"Of course I'm coming." Derek replies. "Wouldn't miss it."
The hours pass as life within Seattle Grace Mercy West marches on. The sick and the injured come in through the doors and the doctors and nurses do their best to help them, comfort them, make them feel better. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. That's just the way it is. That's the way life is.
At just before nine Callie ends her search for her wife at the Chief of Pediatric Surgery's office, finding the blonde staring off into space. Arizona has changed out of her scrubs and is looking gorgeous, long blonde hair shining.
Knocking softly on Arizona's door, blue eyes snap up to her wife's when Callie says "Hey pretty lady, you about ready?"
A tired smile crosses Robbins lips and she whispers "Yeah. Let's go." Her wife watches as the blonde braces herself against her desk, needing leverage to get up on her feet. The Latina's instinct is to rush to her side and help her, but Arizona is better now. She's healing, and getting stronger. Just at the end of the day her body is so much more drained than it used to be, but Arizona doesn't give up.
The duo walk hand in hand down the hallways of their hospital, their pace much slower than years ago, but Callie doesn't mind. After all they'd been through, after all Arizona has overcome to be able to walk down these halls, Torres wouldn't care if it took them all day. She's just happy to have her wife by her side.
It's nearly twenty after nine by the time Arizona and Callie reach their destination. With a quick squeeze of her wife's hand, Callie pushes open the door to Joe's and the couple step into the warmth of their neighborhood bar. Everyone has already arrived and the atmosphere is lively, doctors and nurses letting their hair down after a long day of saving lives.
"It's about time!" Cristina hollers over the din when she sees her old roommate. "We got tired of waiting so we started drinking without you." The surgeon adds, raising a shot glass and clinking it with Meredith's before knocking it back.
"Sorry, my fault." Arizona replies as she limps to the first chair she can find and takes a load off.
Callie kisses her wife on the cheek before motioning to Owen, "Help me?" The two head off towards the bar and order a couple rounds of drinks for their group.
Once back at the tables with an ungodly amount of tequila shots, Callie reaches into her bag and pulls out a picture frame. A tanned finger runs the length of the bristly jawline pictured within, her eyes moistening as she stares at the face of her best friend. With a soft kiss, the Latina places it on the table next to a picture of Lexie Grey. It's been a year today since the plane went down, a full year of heartache and death and recovery. A year that has seen so many lows, and yet so many bright spots as well.
"Who wants to start?" Owen asks the group, the atmosphere around them becoming heavy and serious.
Looking around at the rest of his friends, Alex speaks up "I guess I will." He takes a shot and turns to address the photos. "I guess all I can really say about Lexie is that… she was a good friend. She was always there, willing to listen and help anyone who asked her." Heads nod solemnly at his words and Karev starts to feel uncomfortable so he clears his throat and raises his shot glass to the picture. "To Lexie." The tequila burns a path down his throat and he upends the glass to set it down in front of the picture.
"She was an amazing sister-in-law and a hell of a surgeon." Derek adds before taking his shot.
"Lexie was a wonderful partner. She was the love of Mark's life." Callie says, then takes her own shot.
"And she was the perfect sister." Meredith adds in a whisper. "I once told her she was the woman I never wanted to meet, and now I'm sorry that I didn't meet her sooner. She changed my life, and I love her. …To Lexie." Those who haven't taken their shots yet echo Meredith's words, and one by one an empty shot glass is placed upside down in front of the young woman who will never know what it means to grow old.
They each take another shot glass and turn their attention to the picture next to Lexie.
"Mark…" Derek breathes out.
"Man-whore." Bailey teases, her mind going back to that day where she had to talk to the nurses about him because the entire nursing staff was boycotting working with the man.
"McSteamy." Cristina states flatly.
"Fellow dirty mistress." Meredith adds with a smile.
"An amazing surgeon, and an amazing mentor." Jackson says with a proud smile, raising his glass in the direction of his long time teacher.
"An excellent father." Arizona says, wrapping an arm around Callie's waist and pulling her in closer.
"And my very best friend." Callie muses, a tear running down her face. "I miss you, Mark. And I love you."
"To Mark, who was right when he told me I'd never find a better friend." Derek toasts, everyone raising their glasses to their friend and drinking in his memory.
The heaviness of their memorial passes and soon the atmosphere lightens again. Round after round of shots are taken and soon the doctors are not just mourning their friend's deaths, but celebrating their lives. The dance floor beckons both Cristina and Meredith, the need to dance out their grief being too great to ignore. Arizona watches from the sidelines until Derek approaches and asks for a dance. It's not long before Owen pulls Callie out as well, their new found friendships being one of the many highlights of the past year filled with pain.
As she gets twirled around the dance floor, Callie smiles at the gathering of her family. It's large… and messy. And most of the times they don't all get along, but it's still family. Cristina has come back from Minnesota and she and Owen are working on their relationship. It's not all rainbows and sunshine yet, but they are getting there. Meredith is one of the best residents in the hospital, and Derek is back on top in his surgical field after Callie's saving surgery on his hand. …And word around the hospital is that the two of them are actively trying to give Zola a sibling.
Out of the corner of her eye, Torres finds Miranda and Ben nestled together, the two newlyweds dancing as if no one else was present, as well as Jackson and April sharing an intimate moment. It's strange how such a traumatic event can shake the very foundation of a group of people, and more times than not it's just what is needed to kick someone in the ass and get them going. After all, everyone knew April and Jackson were going to end up together, they just didn't know it themselves.
After swaying in Derek's arms for three straight songs, Arizona can feel her exhaustion really sinking in. The rest of the couples are actually dancing and moving, a streak of jealousy blazing through the blonde at the sight of Owen actually spinning her wife, while all Arizona can muster is the slight movement of back and forth.
But when the fourth song flips, someone taps on the Neuro God's shoulder. "Mind if I cut in?" Callie asks, her mega-watt smile lighting up the dark dance floor of Joe's bar.
"Not at all, Dr. Torres." Derek replies playfully, carefully stepping away from the blonde while also making sure to support some of her weight.
Arizona gladly leans into her wife's body, fair arms reaching up and wrapping around the Latina's neck. "You weren't getting jealous, were you?" The blonde asks teasingly once they fall into their own rhythm.
"Yeah… I was." Callie replies, playing along. "I'm afraid that you were going to fall for McDreamy. All that hair and everything…"
"Hmm." Arizona hums, nuzzling into the ortho surgeon's warm neck. "He's not really my type."
"I'm glad." Torres whispers, then lays a soft and tender kiss against her wife's temple.
The two sway to their own rhythm, ignoring the upbeat music pumping around them. There was a time where Arizona and Callie would be dying to dance like Cristina and Meredith are right now, to jump around without regard, make fools of themselves in their own living room like they did when they first started dating. But that was then, and so much has changed since then. Gunmen and Africa and pregnancy and car wrecks and… plane crashes. After all that Arizona and Callie are just thankful they still have each other.
Pink lips seek out the Latina's and after a slow and loving kiss Arizona pulls away to stare up into rich chocolate eyes and whispers "Take me home."
Back at the apartment Arizona and Callie come home to a sound asleep Sofia and their 17 year old downstairs neighbor watching some crazy reality TV series. The couple thank the young woman for watching their daughter, and slip in an extra twenty dollar for agreeing on such short notice. Callie walks her neighbor down to her door since it's so late, and soon returns to find Arizona collapsed on the couch.
"Did you check on her?" She asks, closing their front door and locking it behind her.
"Yep. Out like a light." Arizona groans as her hands start to massage the muscle of her left thigh, or at least what's left of it.
Callie shuffles through the dark living room and holds out a hand to her wife. "Let's go to bed."
Just that simple statement feels impossible to Arizona, her body zapped of every ounce of energy it has. Sensing this, Callie smiles and leans over the blonde, draping an arm around her shoulders while Callie slides a hand underneath Arizona's knee.
"What are you doing?" Arizona gasps when Callie slowly rises, taking Robbins with her.
"Taking you to bed. What's it look like?" Torres replies with a soft smile.
"I can walk, Calliope. Put me down." The blonde urges, but by the time her wife listens to her Callie is setting her down on their bed. "You don't have to do that, you know. I can take care of myself." Arizona adds when Callie sits down next to her.
A tanned hand reaches up and brushes away a lock of blonde hair, the Latina needing some sort of physical contact right now. "I know, sweetie. But… sometimes I like taking care of you." She replies, prompting blue eyes to find hers. It's been a year since the accident, a long and very stressful year. Arizona has made huge, huge strides in her recovery but Callie still has those occasional longings of caring for her wife.
"It's been a year." Arizona whispers, like its just now sinking in. "A year, Calliope."
"I know." She replies.
"And sometimes I still think I'm going to snap out of it, you know? That I'll wake up in our bed, your arms around me, and I'll look down to see my leg. That this was all a dream. One big, horrible nightmare." The blonde says, her gaze dropping to her left leg where her hand is rubbing from flesh to plastic, then back to flesh.
Callie doesn't know what to say so instead she pulls her wife's face back up and presses a soft, yet passionate, kiss against pink lips. She wants to give the blonde something to hold on to, something to prove that it's not a dream. It's real, and though it might not be the best outcome, it's not the worst thing that could have happened. No, this is far from the worst case scenario. …Because Arizona is kissing her back when not a year ago she was a breaths hair away from never getting off the OR table. The same table she lost her leg on.
A tongue slips out from its hiding place and traces deliciously full lips, Arizona's desire quickly growing in their embrace. A moan spills from her wife, Callie never getting used to how her wife can make her feel with a simple kiss. And when fair hands reach for the bottom of the Latina's shirt, Callie quickly pulls away from the kiss to allow her top to be pulled over her head. Nerve endings are left on fire as Arizona's fingers move over newly exposed caramel skin, slipping behind the woman to quickly and expertly undo Callie's bra clasp.
Getting pushed down on her back, Arizona rolling on top of her, a gasp escapes Torres when her excited right nipple gets taken between her wife's lips. The ortho surgeon craves Arizona's skin and she claws at the blonde's shirt, easily pulling it off the woman and throwing it into some corner of their room to be picked up later.
Slick lips trail down from mocha breasts until Arizona reaches a denim boundary line and it takes a fraction of a second for her skilled digits to slip the snap from its enclosure, the ripping of a zipper being yanked down excruciatingly slow making a shiver run down Callie's spine. Sexy hips rise up to assist the blonde in their removal, and it takes more than a couple tugs to get the tight pants off her wife but the reward is so worth it. A piece of fabric not large enough to be classified as dental floss is the only thing covering the Latina's core, dipping between her legs and traveling the length of her ass until it wraps back around those curvaceous hips.
"Beautiful." Arizona whispers in total awe at the sight of the woman below her.
Callie reaches for her, reinitiating their heated kiss while letting her hands run down the blonde's strong back, releasing Arizona's restraint with a simple twist of her fingers. Naked breasts rest against naked breasts as heated centers grind against heated centers. Without breaking their kiss, Callie turns them so that Arizona is beneath her, the Latina having felt the blonde's exhaustion from trying to hold herself up.
Arizona's pants are soon added to the pile of discarded clothes, and blue eyes lock with brown when tanned hands continue further on down her left leg. It's been a year and yet Arizona still has trouble letting anyone touch it, even if that person is the woman she trusts the most. …A trust that has also fallen to incredible lows and amazing highs during the course of the past year.
But Callie doesn't hesitate, doesn't let her loving look falter as she expertly releases the prosthesis from her wife's thigh. It's true that there was a time when it upset her, looking at the mangled leg that she couldn't save. It brought back feelings of letting her wife down, of breaking a promise she never should have made. But it's a part of Arizona now, and Arizona is a part of her. None of the rest of it matters.
Once the protective cap is slide from the blonde's leg, dark brown eyes skim down the length of her wife's body, taking her all in. "Beautiful." Callie whispers, her right hand caressing the red and irritated skin of Arizona's tired stump.
"Really?" Her wife asks in a breath, those beautiful eyes that their daughter inherited always making her feel like not enough.
"Absolutely beautiful." Callie replies firmly, yet tenderly. "More so than the day I married you." She adds before lowering her body down on her wife's, their lips finding one another's again.
The fire burning within their bodies is hot enough to set the room on fire, and Arizona is the first one to seek out her lover's arousal, gasping at the arousal instantly coating her fingers. Callie moans at the contact, teeth digging into the creamy shoulder below her.
Callie tips to the side, straddling her wife's leg and opening herself up more for Arizona while revealing the blondes excited center as well. Dipping her hand between Arizona's legs, she finds that she isn't the only one drenched with liquid sex.
"You feel so good." Callie moans, her ragged breath washing over Arizona's neck and her sex filled voice making the blonde ache.
Arizona bites her lip, not wanting to yell out and possibly wake their daughter, and ends up letting out a series of whimpers right next to the Latina's ears. The sound of her wife trying to contain her pleasure only serves to fire up Callie even more, her fingers leaving the sensitive bud and slipping inside Arizona's molten core.
"Yes…" Arizona hisses, a wave of warmth flooding her body for a fraction of a second at the penetration. She, too, slips between Callie's legs and enters the Latina which gets rewarded by a moan of pleasure "Oh god, Calliope." The blonde whimpers.
"Harder, baby." Callie pleads, her eyes clenched tight as she forces herself to keep pumping within her wife while Arizona makes her whole body shake with pleasure. When the blonde increases her tempo, matching that of the ortho surgeon, Torres purrs "Fuck yes, yes. Like that, oh god. Don't stop."
Fingernails dig into caramel flesh above her, each thrust of Callie's fingers sending Arizona closer and closer to the edge. Those muffled whimpers are barely heard over the heavy and ragged breathing filling the room, the air heavy with their heady scent of arousal and the slick sound of bodies moving as one.
"Are you close?" Callie asks, brown eyes falling to the writhing blonde below her, Arizona's head tipped back, her bottom lip tucked tightly between perfectly white teeth and a glistening of sweat covering her brow.
"Mmhmm." Arizona moans, not daring to open her mouth which would no doubt result in a loud cry that would startle their daughter.
The urgency of tanned fingers within the blonde picks up and Arizona knows that's her sign to follow suit, plunging in and out of Callie's slick heat as hard as she can, juices collecting in her hand. She's playing so close to the edge that any little thing will tip her over, and when Callie hooks her fingers against Arizona's wall as she pulls out, hitting that sweet spot, she comes with the full force of a wrecking ball. A moan loud enough to make the walls vibrate rips from her mouth, Callie quickly silencing her wife by swallowing it up only a split second before her own orgasm hits her.
The couple spasm and quake in each other's arms, their muscles contracting and keeping fingers within their bodies, teasing and milking their releases even more. And when the last aftershocks rock them, Arizona and Callie collapse in a sated heap, Arizona's rapid beating heart drumming in Callie's ear as she rests against the slick skin of her wife's chest.
The Latina rolls to the side, reaching down to the foot of the bed to grab a blanket and pulling it over them, and settles to where Arizona's injured leg is nestled between Callie's legs. The feeling of her wife's wetness against her battered thigh is an odd comfort, knowing that even in the state she is in, Callie is hers. Even after those first few months where Arizona tried to push her away, Callie always came back. She fought, sometimes fought Arizona, for the both of them.
With her finger tracing an invisible pattern on the opposite shoulder than she's resting on, Callie sighs in contentment and places a kiss against Arizona's cheek. "I love you." She whispers.
Blue eyes lock with brown, their souls spilling out and mingling together in a single look that rocks Arizona to her core. "I love you too."
And none of the rest of it matters.