Love Trap Chapter 3
Callie groaned and squinted her eyes as she rolled over in her king sized bed. The rain had stopped during the early morning and the sun was now peeking through puffy white clouds. It was nearly ten in the morning and her shift didn't start until one since she had worked double shifts yesterday. She was still tired from the previous day and the thought of getting out of bed was not appealing. Stretching her body she could hear her shoulders and neck pop and she instantly felt slightly better.
She went by her morning routine of showering, getting dressed and put some make up on her face before heading to the kitchen to make some much needed coffee. A loud snoring noise appeared out of nowhere and she screamed out in fear until she saw who it was. Sprawled out on her couch with feet hanging of the edge, was Mark, now wide awake due to Callie's howling.
"What the fuck, Torres! Don't do that to me." he sat up, ran his hands over his face and relaxed again.
"What do you mean, don't do that?" Callie almost shouted. "This is my apartment, my couch and my pillow you're sleeping on. What the fuck are you doing here? You scared the living crap out of me, Mark."
"Yang let me in. I was too tired to walk all the way home so I asked if I could crash here and, obviously, she said yes. Otherwise I wouldn't be here."
Callie picked up the pillow he had been sleeping on and threw it in his face. "All the way home? You live two blocks from here." she went about preparing her coffee and handed Mark a mug as well. She sat down next to him on the couch and sipped the steaming hot brew. "I need you to look at a patient today." she casually stated.
"The hot blonde with the crushed legs that you want to bury your face between?"
Callie had known Mark for a long time and she also knew that he couldn't help himself sometimes. Words and blunt statements were not unusual slipping from his tongue. She glared at him but decided not to comment on it since there was no point. "Yeah, her." she said and they both turned their heads towards a blank tv screen and finished their morning coffee in silence.
Entering the hospital, Callie slipped through the door into the changing room and spotted Christina literally eating the face of dr Hunt. "Eww, guys! Every time I see you your at it. Aren't you ever... satisfied?"
Christina didn't even break the passionate kiss they were sharing before she answered in an incoherent tone. "Nnn, yourr jealuss." she mumbled. Callie groaned in discomfort and quickly got changed so she could leave the two horny teenagers alone.
"Jesus, and I thought Mark was bad." she mumbled under her breath as she left.
She headed straight for Arizona's room to see if there was any change in her condition and fortunately there wasn't. Kepner approached her as she made her way to the nurse's station. "Dr Torres. I've contacted Arizona's emergency contact. It's her older brother Timothy and he's on his way. Should be here any minute now. I just thought you should know."
"Thanks April. I hate this part of my job." she sighed and signed off on some digital charts before handing them to one of the nurses. "Breaking bad news is never easy." she said in a defeated voice.
Callie did her usual rounds and post ops. When she reached the nurse's station again, a blonde man in his late thirties, blue eyes and clear complexion stood a few feet away, looking slightly lost. The brunette knew by the, almost identical features as Arizona, this had to be her brother. "Are you Timothy Robbins?" Callie asked and tilted her head to the side as she approached the man.
"Um, yeah. Hi, nice to meet you." he offered the doctor his hand and gave it a firm squeeze. "What happened to my sister? Is she okay? I got worried last night when she never answered her phone. I thought she was still mad at me from earlier." Callie raised her eyebrows in confusion. "We had an argument yesterday morning and I just thought she was pulling a strop and being her childish self. I never thought anything bad had happen. Can I see her?"
Callie took a step closer to the nervous man and gave him a comforting smile. "Mr Robbins, your sister was involved in a multi car pile up last night. Her legs were pinned between the driver seat and the dashboard. She was trapped for about twenty minutes before she was freed. She cracked a couple of ribs, fractured her left wrist, minor cuts and bruises on her face and neck." she made a brief pause before continuing. "All those injuries will heal nicely over time, it's her legs that causes me more concern."
Timothy felt his colour drain from his face and he suddenly felt the need to sit down. Callie took him by the elbow and led him to a seated area. "You alright, mr Robbins?"
He nodded shakily. "Yeah, but please, call me Timothy. I feel like my old man otherwise." he tried to lighten the mood slightly for his own sake. He had never been good engaging in serious conversations or situations but this was about his sister's health and well-being, his childish, adorable, quite annoying and beautiful little sister, the only family he had left after their parents passed away in a boating accident just over ten years ago.
Callie smiled back at him, sensing his need for some kind of positivity and humor in something that held so much worry and grief. "Okay, Timothy it is." she stated before gently continuing. "Her legs were badly crushed and required extensive emergency surgery and will probably need further operations to correct and align the bones throughout the process. I'm the one who operated on your sister and I will continue to treat her and being her doctor. I'm pretty good at what I do and I don't give up until I'm pleased with the outcome. There will be a long road ahead of surgeries, consultations and physiotherapy but I'm quite confident that she will be able to walk again and live a normal life. I'm gonna do everything in my power to see to it."
Timothy just blinked a couple of times and then sighed. "God," he said in defeat, "can I see her?"
Callie swallowed and licked suddenly dry lips. "Well, due to the severity of her injuries she was inevitably in a lot of pain. I, as her doctor, felt that it was in her best interest to put her in a medical induced coma for a week, just to give her body a rest and time to heal."
Blue eyes went wide. "She's in a coma?"
"No!" Callie said qickly. "I mean, yes she is but it's not what you think. When a patient slips into a coma it can take days, weeks, months or even years for them to finally wake up, if they do at all. Your sister's case is totally different. She didn't slip into a coma by herself due to a serious injury, she was medicated into a very very deep sleep, just like a coma, but I can also use medication to reverse it, to wake her up when her body is more able to handle the trauma. You can see her, of course, but she's sleeping."
Tim nodded and took a deep breath. He was afraid. He was scared and worried that his little sister's injuries would be too much for Arizona to handle once she woke up. If her condition was so severe that she had to be coma induced, then it couldn't be good. Even though Callie's words had been encouraging and hopeful he couldn't help but to fear the worst, but he would never let Arizona know how he felt. He had to be strong for both of them and place all his positive energy and mood into her road to recovery.
Callie showed him to her room and, just as the brunette had said, Arizona was sleeping. Deeply. Wires and tubes were hooked up to various machines to make sure all her stats were within the normal range, her legs were in casts all the way from her mid thighs down to her toes, her left wrist was tightly bandaged and her face looked like it had been used as a pin cushion. Slowly Tim walked up to his slumbering sister, sat down in the chair next to the bed and took her uninjured hand in his.
"Oh, baby sis." he said, close to tears and he was glad in that moment that Arizona wasn't awake to see them. "I'm so sorry this happened to you." he quickly wiped an errant tear away and then fell silent for a moment until he unexpectedly let out a hearted laugh. "You would beat yourself up if you knew how terrible you look right now, especially in front of your incredibly hot doctor." he chuckled, "not to mentions that you will be sleeping for a whole week!? What a waste of time when you could be eyeing up all the nurses and doctors, show off your dimpled smile, that you insist on being your trademark, and you'll have all the women swarming around your bed... or in your bed." he suggested, "you were always better at chasing the women. I would never admit that to you if you were in a normal, conscious state so I'm taking my chance to say it now when you can't hear me."
"Some people think that they can still hear you, even if they're in a coma."
Tim jumped in his chair when he heard Callie's voice from behind. "Oh, dr Torres. I didn't know you were still here. I um,... I thought that you... um, that you... left." he frowned suddenly and looked questionably at the beautiful latina. "Do you really think she heard me? I mean, if she did hear that last part I won't hear the end of it until the day I die." he stated. "Man, she's gonna rub this in my face." he scratched his neck and grinned uncomfortably.
Callie chuckled. "Sounds like you two are really close? She sounds like a charmer."
"You have no idea, Dr Torres. I would watch out if I were you. She will have you wrapped around her finger in no time."
"Please, call me Callie. I think we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the near future. I can't wait to properly meet your sister. I'm always up for a challenge and by the sound of it, I think I'm in for quite a few."