Love Trap Chapter 5
A week passed and the worst of Arizona's pain had subsided slighty. She still had moments when the intense pain would hit her but they seemed to be less frequent than before. She did sleep alot due to the pain medication. It passed the time but she was getting restless and bored. Her back was aching from lying in the same position and she felt dirty and ugly. Tim had tried to wash her hair the best he could but it was difficult when you were literally bedridden and he couldn't reach all the places that needed attention.
She was upset and sad about what had happened to her two weeks ago. A man, a stranger, had caused this and she would never forgive him for it. It had nearly caused her her life and now she was facing months of physical therapy, probably more surgeries and even more pain. It wasn't fair that he got out with just a minor concussion and mild shock. Her life had change in the matter of a few seconds because a strange man hadn't paid close enough attention on the road and she had to suffer for his foolish mistake.
She did cry herself to sleep sometimes but would never show her tears to anybody, not even her brother. She didn't want him to worry and she thought that, by acting and putting on a brave face, everything was okay and nothing would bring her down. Boy, was she wrong. It didn't matter how many times she tried to laugh, told Tim and Callie dirty lesbian jokes or how much she struggled to act like her normal self, she was only fooling herself by trying to be someone or something she wasn't. At least not now. Maybe in time she would get back to who she use to be but for now, she put on a mask and had to grin and bare it.
She had become snappy and angry. Her mood was slowly deteriorating and both Callie and Tim knew that it was a part of the process of how she handled this whole ordeal and left her to deal with it her own way as long as it didn't get out of hand. She wasn't as snappy when Callie was around. Then the charmer inside of her came out to play and she felt better until Callie had to leave and she was yet again left in her own misery, almost fooled by herself.
"Mark I'm telling you. You have to meet this girl. She's sush a ladies lady, even more so than you." they were sitting by the bar in their favourite pub Joe's, drinking shots of tequila and beer. Mark was on his fourth while Callie had settled for only two since she was working in the morning.
"Come on Torres. She can't be more of a ladies lady cause no one is better than me at it." he finished his fourth shot in one single gulp and went straight for another beer.
"I'm telling you. I have to introduce you. You can perv over the nurses together." the brunette insisted and looked at the time. "Damn, it's almost eleven. I have to get up at eight." she stood up, ready to leave. "Double damn." she sighed, her shoulders slumped down in defeat. "I left my phone in my locker."
"Life's a bitch, Torres." Mark stated.
Callie gave him a slap on the back of his head. "I'll see you later, man whore."
The pub was only about a block away from the hospital and it was a frequent meeting spot for many surgeons. Joe who owned and worked behind the bar recognized most faces and knew almost everybody's name and their drink. He had also become a friend to Callie and he would always listen to her when she felt the need to rant.
Inside the hospital things were rather quiet. It was just after eleven and most patients were asleep in their beds. Some were watching tv and gave her a slight smile as she passed by their room, since most patients in the ICU knew her face by now. She made her way to the locker room and found it empty. After grabbing her phone she checked to see if she had received any phone calls or texts. One unread text message. It was from Mark. 'Thank god you left, cause I'm getting laid tonight.' it read.
She chuckled and sent a short smart comment back when a noise stopped her dead in her tracks. She didn't know what the noise was or where it came from, but then it made itself know again and to Callie it sounded an awful lot like crying. Well, maybe just sniffles but crying nonetheless. The faint whimpers and hiccups came from further down the dark corridor and she realized then that it came from Arizona's room. She quickly put her phone in her bag and headed in the direction of the soft cries.
Upon entering the room she was heartbroken to see the blonde trying to muffle the sounds with a pillow that she held over her mouth and nose. Her eyes were red rimmed and face flushed with fresh tear marks down her cheeks. It caused Callie to almost cry herself at the sight. "Hey, Arizona. You okay?" she asked gently as she approached the bed.
The blonde instantly stopped making any noise, not even breathing as she realized that she had been caught crying. She quickly dried her cheeks with her good hand and removed the pillow, a soft fake smile crept upon her lips. "Callie? Why are you... I mean, what are you doing here? I... I thought you left for the day. Couldn't stay away from me for too long, ugh? Don't be embarrassed, I get that a lot."
The latina chuckled softly and took a few steps closer. "I bet you do. I thought I heard crying but I must be mistaken because Arizona Robbins doesn't cry, does she?"
"Absolutely not. I'm just a bit teary eyed from... from... the dust. You know, the dust inside the room and... everything. I'm can be quite sensitive when it comes to dust particles."
"Hmm," Callie mumbled. "Must be hard considering that there's dust almost anywhere you go but, here in the ICU, you won't find any dust. This place is scrubbed from the ceiling to the floor every day to minimize risk of infections in patients who's recovering from various surgeries. It's vital to keep a place like this spick and span so no dust particles can find their way into someone's body." she said matter of factly. "Or eyes."
Arizona bit her lower lip in embarrassment. "Well, you must've brought it in with you then. You said it yourself, dust is everywhere so it must be from you." the blonde smiled and looked confident with her reply.
Callie tilted her head to the side. "Are you saying that I'm... dusty? Like an old vinyl record from the sixties that have been forgotten about in some box and the rats have started to chew on?" she joked and carefully sat down on the crisp white sheets next to Arizona. "I must be older than I thought."
"Age have nothing to do with it. I would still have my way with you even if you were sixty five and had saggy tits cause you're damn hot. Too bad I'm stuck in this bed." her confidence was oozing again, pushing her real feelings aside, not wanting to confront them.
"Well, hopefully I will never get saggy tits but you can't fight gravity, can you?"
Arizona nodded in agreement. "Exactly, same with dust particles. It's just the way the cookie crumbles." she winked. "Anyway, you should go home and get some sleep. You look a bit tired."
"So now I'm dusty, old and tired?" Callie questioned with a frown. "I can't keep up with all these adjectives." she paused before asking, "Will you be okay if I leave?" Callie didn't feel comfortable leaving a clearly upset Arizona behind but she knew she wasn't gonna get anything out of her tonight.
The blonde thought for a moment. "I would feel better if you gave me a kiss goodnight." Arizona smiled cheekily, causing her dimples to appear.
Callie struggled against her willpower. Who wouldn't want to kiss Arizona? Those pale blue eyes, pink lips, soft skin and dimples to die for. It wouldn't be proffesional, of course, but it was hard to say no to those pleading eyes. Slowly, almost as if time passed in slow motion, she lowered her head down to Arizona's eye level, pursed her lips and swiftly gave her a peck on the cheek. "Better?" Callie asked, smiling.
Arizona pouted. "Wrong cheek." she said in a childish voice and lowered her head in disappointment.
Callie didn't think twice about it before she leaned down for a second time and kissed the neglected side. "Wrong cheek." Arizona stated again with a pout.
Callie frowned in confusion unil it suddenly dawned on her which cheeks Arizona was actually talking about. She laughed out loud, showing off a perfect set of white teeth. "I don't know you that well yet, Casanova but you can dream."
Before standing up and getting ready to leave, Callie couldn't stop her right hand from reaching out and tenderly wiped a lone tear away from the corner of her eye, lingering for a couple of seconds until her ethical self control kicked in. "Good night, Arizona." she whispered. "Sweet dreams."
She stood up and walked towards the door when she heard Arizona say in a sultry voice, "oh, I plan on it."
The next morning Callie was greeted by a grumpy Christina. She was sitting on a sofa in a waiting room area, stuffing her face with a huge bag of sour cream and onion potato chips, looking like she hadn't slept in weeks. "Wow," Callie commented, "did someone steal all your surgeries or something? You look like you're about to punch someone's face in. What gives?"
Yang glared at her and tossed another couple of chips into her mouth. "Do you know how many people sits on this sofa? A lot, and I slept here. On this very sofa because all the on call rooms were full of interns sleeping around with god knows who and I slept crap by the way. I would strongly recommend to not sleep on this sofa." she popped another handful of chips into her mouth and chewed loudly.
"Well, I had a great sleep in my own soft and comfortable bed. Slept like a munchkin through the night."
Yang threw a chip at her. "Rub it in, Torres. I hate you."
Callie dodged the flying chip, smiled and headed into the locker room to get changed. Her first stop was Arizona's room and she noticed that Tim wasn't there. "Hi, charmer. Where's Mr Softy?"
Arizona raised her eyebrows. "You call him Mr Softy? Why didn't I think of that? One point for you dr Torres." she winked and smiled which caused her dimples to show which, in turn, caused Callie's heart to skip a beat.
"Are we keeping some kind of score now?" the latina asked and began checking Arizona's vitals and frowned slightly as the thermometer showed a mild fever. "Hmm," she muttered and placed the back of her hand on Arizona's forehead. "You've got a fever missy. What are we gonna do about that, ugh?"
"Maybe you could kiss it better?" the blonde hopefully suggested.
Chuckling, Callie sat down on the bed. "Well, I seem to kiss you in all the wrong places so I don't think that's an option. How about some plain old Tylenol?"
Not really happy with the answer Arizona nodded anyway. "I suppose that will have to do then."
Callie left but came back a few minutes later with two tablets and a small pot of purple jell'O. "I know purple is your favourite colour so I thought that this might cheer you up."
She placed the pot on the small table next to the bed, close enough for Arizona to reach. She swallowed the medicine and stretched out her right arm to get to the purple jelly. Suddenly a wave of pain washed over her and she let out a stiffled cry, tears instantly forming in her eyes. Callie quickly placed her hand on her cheek and stroked it with the pad of her thumb, sighing softly when she noticed the tears brimming in her blue orbs.
"Shh, easy. Its okay, breath through it. It'll pass soon." the tender look on Callie's face almost brought another wave of tears to spill down her cheeks but she managed to hold it in. "Feeling better?"
Arizona could feel her cheek burn where Callie had placed her hand and she never wanted her to pull it away. Ever. Her voice was not to be trusted at this point. A simple nod would have to do.