A/N: Hello Again everyone! I decided to be nice and not make you wait for an update. There will be one more chapter after this and that will be the end of this tale. I have my next two stories already worked out so I really want to move onto those stories. But while I start to write the next one, I will be posting the sequel to Till Death Do Us Part, as I had promised before but never got around to doing it. Again I would like to thank everyone who comments after every update and I hope you continue to do so.

Happy Reading everyone!

~hASHbrown

Chapter 16

Most people think I was named for the state but it's not true. I was named for a battleship. The U.S.S. Arizona. My grandfather was serving on the Arizona when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and he saved nineteen men before he drowned. Pretty much everything my father did his whole life was about honoring that sacrifice. I was raised to be a good man in a storm. Raised to love my country, love my family and protect the things I love.

When I met Joanne, we were both naïve and young. Joanne was my first love and I had always pictured that we'd be together forever. That's usually what happens with your first love. Or so I've been told. You feel like your heart is being ripped from your chest and stomped all over on when it comes to an end. That was Joanne and I. Joanne leaving me for someone else ripped my heart out, and when she died, she crushed it. I spent months wallowing in my sadness over the fact that the girl I was so angry with, I still loved and was heartbroken that she was taken away.

But this, this was on a whole other level. Joanne and I probably never would have gotten back together. We just didn't mesh perfectly. But Callie, Callie and I were a perfect fit. We could push each other's buttons, but we loved each other with such a passion that I had never experienced before. Truth is, I wasn't really living till I met Callie. She opened my eyes and showed the potential happiness and sense of freedom that my life could possess.

The day she went in for surgery had become the worst day of my life. Like I said before I was raised to be a good man in a storm and raised to protect the people that I love the most. I loved Callie. Still do. And on that day all I wanted was to protect her. All I wanted was to hold her close to me and keep her safe. Keep her with me. But I had to trust that whatever the universe had planned was what was meant to be.

That day was the longest day of my life. Sitting for hour after hour not really knowing what's going on, a doctor coming out ever so often telling me that they were still working on her. The hours I spent in the waiting area were spent in my memories of how we ended up in there.

"Hey, Dr. Altman, do you have a minute to do a quick consult? I have a post op patient who is complaining of shortness of breath."

I looked to the woman and she immediately smiled at me. I smiled back and then I saw her extend her hand out to take mine. "We seem to be running into each other everywhere, I'm Callie."

Taking hold of her hand, I tried to build up the strength to respond without sounding like a blubbering idiot. Nervously giggling I said "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Arizona. Teddy's friend."

"Hey. You okay? I saw you bolt pretty quickly" I heard. I turned around from where I was sitting and saw Callie standing in the doorway.

"Yeah, it's just umm….uhh….my girlfriend, or well my ex-girlfriend, she died up on that floor. Just seeing the room…."

"Hey, don't worry. You don't have to say any more. I'm sorry for your loss. You clearly really loved her."

"I did. I'm sorry, I'm such a mess."

"No, no, no. Don't be sorry. I know that it's really none of my business, and we don't really know each other but may I suggest something?"

"Umm, sure I guess." I responded

"Tomorrow is my day off and I was planning on taking a little road trip to this cute little town. It's small and there's some cute little shops. It's away from all the hustle and bustle. You should come with me."

"That's really sweet, but I can't."

"From what Teddy has told me, you work too much. This could be good, you know? To have a little fun."

"I barely know you."

"Well, what better way to get to know each other than to spend the day together. Hang out."

"I appreciate it, really. It's just that, I completely put my life on hold to take care of my ex, and now I have to catch up. I can't…"

"Come on, why not?" She asked me.

"Because, life's in the way. I don't have time."

"Arizona, life isn't in the way of anything here." She said to me with a slight laugh.

"What do you mean?"

"I am offering you some fun. I'm offering you some life."

"Sounds more like you're offering me an adventure as opposed to life" I said smiling back at her.

"Life is an adventure."

"You, okay? You're face is beet red."

"This is going to sound a little odd, maybe but I don't really care. From the second I saw you out on the beach, I've been attracted to you. And the more we've gotten to know each other, the more attracted I've become. But I was grieving over Joanne and used that as an excuse not to be happy or to move on with my life. But I can't take it anymore and...in like three seconds, I'm going to kiss you and if you don't want me to…well, you will have to push me away."

Memories kept fading in and out of my mind for hour after hour. The first time that I saw her…the first night we ever made love. It was all a catalyst for ending up sitting in a hospital waiting room wondering if the love of my life was going to live or die.

"Calliope?" I called out. There was no answer. "Calliope, you okay?"

I opened her door and saw her laying unconscious on the bedroom floor. I rushed to her side in a panic. "Calliope! Oh my god! Oh my god!"

"Hi, I'm doctor Swinder."

"Hi, I'm Arizona." I said. The worry and fear was rising within me rather quickly every second the doctor wasn't saying anything. She then directed the conversation to Calliope.

"Callie, you are doing okay. But your episode was due to the cancer. Now, I know you refused treatment the last time we spoke but, I am telling you that it is still small enough that I have high hopes that we can kick it in the butt with treatment. Just think about it okay."

"Arizona! Arizona, wait! Can you just talk to me?"She called out.

I turned around and saw her standing out in the pouring rain getting soaked by the second. "Callie, get inside before you catch a cold!"

"No! Not until you talk to me."

"How long did you know you were sick?" I asked her as I approached slowly.

"I found out two months before I even met you. I have a growth in my lung. It's been small enough that, it hasn't affected any of the physical activity I do, but today was the first time it's ever gotten to me."

"Why would you refuse treatment, then?" I was angry and she knew it, but I was thankful that she was at least being honest with me now.

"Because I figured that it was what it was. I figured if I pushed it to the back of my mind and just carried on with my life that it wouldn't get to me. Concentrating on all that was good in my life was a hell of a lot better than concentrating on my illness and living in fear."

"Why...why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you were wallowing in your grief over your ex-girlfriend! She died of cancer! Do you think if you had known before hand that I had cancer, you would have initiated a romantic relationship between us? Would you still have gone out with me?... I didn't think so."

"I want you to fight this. Get the treatment. I want you to get the treatment because you made me fall for you. You made me fall for you and now I'm in love with you and you are in love with me. So I want you to get the treatment and fight because I'm not done loving you."

I sat there remembering the good, remembering the bad. Just sitting and waiting. Waiting for whatever what as the hours progressed seemed would be bad news. I didn't want to go on living. If Callie, my beautiful Calliope didn't make it, I didn't want to live. I couldn't even imagine living a life where Callie no longer existed.

I sat there hour after hour, not really sure of what was going on. I had been told that the longer it takes, meant that Callie was still alive. Which I guess you could say was a good thing, but at the time all that waiting ever did to me was set me further on to the edge of insanity.

As I sat in the chair, I couldn't hear all the noises that were occurring around me. All that would register in my mind was the constant rhythm of the ticking of the clock that was above me on the wall. Tick, tick, tick. Every second went on and on for what felt like forever.

At some point Mark came and sat with me to make sure I was holding up okay.

"Hey, Arizona. How you holding up? Do you need anything?" He asked me.

"No, thank you though. I'm okay, really."

"You sure. You should maybe go eat something. Keep your strength up."

"I can't." I replied.

Mark moved his chair a little closer to me and even though I really didn't care for the man, I couldn't help but fall into his embrace. "I'm sitting here, and all I can think of is how I got here. How we got into this situation. Maybe I shouldn't have pushed her to get treatment. Then we wouldn't be here right now. I probably could have spared her some pain."

"You can't think about the way things could have been if you had done them differently. Don't think about how you got to sitting here awaiting the fate of Callie's mortality. Instead, think of the great memories you shared this summer. Hold on to the good stuff an pray that she makes it alright. Hold on to those memories, because no matter what she will live. She will live in here." He said to me resting his hand above my heart as a tear came to his eye.

"I've never heard a man speak that way before." I said. I had heard stories that this man was a manwhore but he was being incredibly sweet and moving.

"Don't let anyone know." He responded with a small chuckle.

"You really care about her don't you?" I asked.

"She's my best friend. One of the best people I know. She wears her heart on her sleeve and she cares like crazy."

"Yeah. She does. Thank you, Mark. I appreciate you being here right now." I said to him as I pulled out of his embrace.

His pager went off soon after. He apologized for the timing and then went on his way to wherever he was being paged to.

As I continued to sit in the chair my eyes fixated on the clock on the wall, all I could do was hold on to the words that Callie had said to her father.

"I will beat this daddy. I will not be responsible for taking her happiness away. I will not be the one who breaks her heart and kills her all over again. I won't leave her, I can't. I cannot be another dead girlfriend in the story of her life. I won't have that be her story, because she deserves better. She will have a future, and I am going to fight with everything I have to make sure that that future has me in it."

"You love her a great deal don't you?"

"I love her more than life itself…"

The words replayed in my mind over and over again. It was a conversation that I was never meant to hear but I was happy to have heard it. I continued watching the clock, just replaying that conversation over and over praying that she would be strong enough to stick to her word and come out on the other side alive.

Finally I saw Teddy coming down the hall. I glanced back up at the clock. Eight hours. I had sat in that chair for eight hours dreading what the words were going to be that were about to come out of my best friend's mouth. I immediately stood up and walked right up to her. Her face had a somber expression, right away my heart felt like it was going to be ripped to shreds for the second time in my life.

"Just give it to me straight, Teddy. I need you to just say it." My voice hitched in my throat. This was it.

"Teddy took a deep breath and opened her mouth. "We got it. She's in recovery and they will bring her back to her room soon."

I threw myself at Teddy, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her in. She held on to me for dear life as I cried profusely in her embrace.