The closure of her relationship with Piper seemed to have opened a multitude of new doors for Arizona. She had quickly become a part of Callie's life – although just in a purely platonic way. Whatever hatchet that could have, and probably should have, existed between the two women was well and truly buried. They never talked about how they met as in their current state of homeostasis, it simply didn't factor into their relationship. Having someone to lean on had a profound impact on Arizona's state of mind after spending so long in the isolated world of Piper. Having a person to talk to, bounce ideas off and socialise with outside work allowed Arizona to re-build her shattered life and return to her pre-Piper days. Piper's actions had left a gaping wound that was yet to heal and sometimes Arizona would still find herself unconsciously noting down something she needed to tell her ex-partner. But as the days past, this became less and less often and this was quickened by the fact that Arizona hadn't looked back – and never would.
But the impact of this surprising friendship wasn't just restricted to Arizona. Callie's wandering eye had also come to a grinding halt. That emptiness of not having someone "to have and to hold" had been filled by a friendship Callie never saw coming. Surprising Callie further was the fact she didn't find herself missing the tumbles all that often. Sure the physical side of things was a bit of a lose, Callie wasn't kidding herself but the loneliness, although still there, had ebbed away into a manageable amount. By no means was Arizona putting her heart back together, but Callie felt she was deviating from her somewhat unhealthy lifestyle. Although Mark claimed she had gotten weak, but who he kidding, Mark doesn't know the first thing about relationships.
Leaning against the ER counter, Callie finds herself thinking about the blonde and couldn't stop herself from letting out a small grin. Arizona was perky, cheerful and sometimes downright annoying – but there were certainly no dull moments when she was about. The two women had plans to tonight – plans that involved a lot of food and a good bottle of wine. Callie simply had to handle any ortho patients that came into the ER and then she was free. No muss, no fuss, Callie muses to herself.
But that Latina has the nagging feeling that something isn't right in the world and Callie intends to get the bottom of it.
"Stevens, what do you want?" Callie growls out as she stares at the scans just handed to her by an intern. The fracture in the right arm requires an air-cast to prevent further damage and Callie really didn't want Izzie becoming her resident for the remainder of her shift. The ex-model had been flitting around Callie all day like an annoying fly that no matter how much you swatted, always came back. Not liking the blonde at the best of times, this behaviour was starting to get on Callie's nerves. The bad blood between the two women meant that they both kept their distance from each other.
"I was wondering if you could consult on a patient I have," Izzie finally stutters out, seemingly quite nervous about talking to Callie – and with good reason.
Grunting a non-committal response, Callie gestures for Izzie to lead the way. Walking towards a consult room, Callie finds herself subconsciously humming the tune to "Eye of the Tiger" under her breath. Quickly stopping, Callie chastises herself as this really isn't the time to go all Rocky on Stevens. Stepping into a consult room, Callie comes face to face with a myriad of scans lining the wall and countless others on the bench. "This patient must have amazing health insurance," Callie comments as she starts to work her way around the room.
The patient's health issue becomes crystal clear as Callie moves from scan to scan. The cancerous lesions on the patient's brain are numerous. Although no expert on oncology, Callie knows this patient's cancer is advanced and an aggressive treatment plan is required. But as she looks at the scans, Callie becomes increasingly confused. This patient doesn't have bone cancer – in fact the patient doesn't have anything wrong with their skeletal structure.
"So here's the million dollar question, why are you showing me this?" Callie asks, knowing that Izzie should know how move forward with this patient – organise an oncology consult and ship the patient up to their ward.
"This is a Patient X who has finally been diagnosed and recently had a second set of scans taken…and…I need to know a treatment plan," Izzie responds.
"I'm not oncology," Callie replies, stating something that even Izzie would be aware of. Callie has been the "bone chick" for years and has never shown as inkling of interest in oncology.
"Humour me," Izzie responds as she stares at the scans of the patient's brain. Izzie's demeanour raises a red flag as it appears that Izzie is emotional attached to this patient. And everyone knows how Izzie's emotional attachments end – LVAD wires cut and hearts' transplanted into patients they aren't intended for.
"Brain surgery to remove the tumours followed by aggressive chemotherapy," Callie responds, "Although you really should talk to someone in the oncology department. I'm no expert. Page Shepherd."
"Success rate?" Izzie asks, in a somewhat fearful voice, pushing on with her questioning.
"Less than 5%," Callie replies, not sugar coating the statistics. "Who's the patient? Because this cancer is quite advanced."
"Someone close."
Watching Izzie's face fall causes all the puzzle pieces to come together. The weirdness that Izzie has been displaying all day, the phantom Patient X that has had the residents' running around the hospital like headless chooks and the bizarreness of the day has suddenly all fallen into place.
"It's you," Callie exclaims as she realises Izzie's previous statement had a geographical meaning as well. "You're Patient X, the patient that the interns have been running around trying to diagnose." With a slight nod of her head, Izzie finally admits to a truth that she has barely admitted to herself. "Why are you telling me this?" Callie asks, believing that she is the last person that Izzie Stevens would ever confide in.
"I don't know what to do," Izzie says as she finally lifts her head to look at Callie. "So I need someone to tell me what to do," she pleads as she forces herself to look at the scans that show her body is riddled with cancer.
"But why me?" Callie asks, knowing that Izzie is placing a terrible burden on her, a burden that she is not sure she can carry. So many people in the hospital love and respect Izzie Stevens as a doctor and as a human being – but Callie isn't one of them. The scans don't lie - Izzie Stevens is dying unless something drastic happens.
"Because I need a doctor – not a friend," Izzie admits. "You will just look at the facts unlike the rest of our friends. Bailey will yell at me for waiting so long, George will probably cry and say everything will be fine as he looks at me with those deer eyes, Yang will ask if she can operate on me and Alex…" Izzie breaks off as she thinks of her boyfriend who has no idea that she is terminally ill. "I don't even know if I should tell them," Izzie says in a hushed voice. "I'm dying."
"You aren't dying Izzie and I refuse to be your secret keeper Izzie," Callie pleads, not knowing if Izzie truly understands what she is asking of her. "And they need to know. You can't keep this to yourself. You should never have told me unless you plan to fight this with every cell in your body. If you aren't planning to fight, walk out of this hospital right now and never look back – because that will be the less painful option for everyone that loves you. They can't let our hands just idle as you die in front of us."
"Please…" Izzie begs.
"We're surgeons Izzie. We fix broken bodies. We put people back together. They, we, can't just leave our hands idle." Callie exclaims, not caring that she is berating an ill woman. "Isabelle Stevens, pull your head out of your arse and tell them the truth and so something!"
"It's too hard…and I see Denny. It's like he's waiting for me to leave. It's like he knows that I'm going to die. He's my own personal omen of death," Izzie stammers out.
"This conversation has taken a sixth sense turn," Callie mutters causing Izzie to look confused.
"I know the statistics, you know the statistics…" Izzie begins to say.
"Don't think about the statistics, don't hope it miraculously disappears, do something! At least you can say 'I did this, I tried, I fought on. At least I did something.'" Callie passionately pleads.
Maybe common sense had finally prevailed or maybe something what Callie said struck a chord, but Izzie Stevens gets a little bit of fight back in her eye.
"Ok, I'll consider my options. I know I have no right to ask this of you. I just need some time…to talk this over with someone. To medically know all my options. You can give me that at least?" The blonde begs.
Unable to say no to a friend (although that term is being applied loosely), Callie reluctantly agrees to be Izzie Steven's confidant. "So, I'm your doctor slash confidant?" Callie questions, making sure she understands what Izzie is asking her. Being the doctor to a friend causes the doctor-patient confidentiality to become a grey area.
"Yes. Can you examine the scans and give me your honest opinion? And please keep this to yourself until I'm ready." Nodding her head in agreement, Callie adds one final thing, "Maybe ask Denny to give you some space? After all, I'm not sure if Alex could deal with the competition," causing the blonde to let out a small grin.
"I'll leave you to it then," Izzie says as she exits the room, watch Izzie walk away, leaving behind a killer secret and a deathly silence.
The rest of her shift passes as a blur for Callie. Her mind is still on those scans as Callie starts to search medical journals for a miracle. Her plans with Arizona have slipped from Callie's mind as she focusses entirely on the medical dilemma prancing around the hospital. Izzie seems to have bounced back after admitting to her deadly secret and seems to be in no rush to seek treatment.
Arriving home, Callie remains in her own little world of scans, medical journals and statistics. Staring hour after hour, the words start to jumble together and a headache starts to form behind Callie's eyes. But the Latina doesn't rest for a moment, instead just moves to the next journal and keeps searching for that needle in the haystack. So oblivious to anything else, Callie doesn't hear the knocking at her apartment door.
Standing on the other side of the door, Arizona knocks with increased fever at the longer she gets no response. It is very unlike Callie to forget about their plans and this silence has the blonde worried. Finally trying the door knob, Arizona finds the door open and slips inside the apartment. Seeing Callie seating on the coach surrounded by scans causes Arizona to become ever more confused. "What are you doing?" Arizona asks.
"Shit, what are you doing here?" Callie exclaims in a voice that sounds harsher than she intended as she sweeps as many of the scans back into an envelope.
"We had plans."
"Don't you knock instead of just waltzing in here?" Callie replies, still holding onto her accusatory tone as she cleans up the mess around her. A look of hurt flits across Arizona's face as she becomes under attack from Callie.
"I can go if you want," Arizona softly offers, not wanting to intrude on whatever has Callie no flustered and short of temper.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Callie knows that she shouldn't be attacking Arizona when Izzie is the person acting stupidly. "No. Stay. I just forgot you were coming. Sorry I snapped. And I could do with a break anyway," Callie replies, as she finally stands and approaches the blonde, offering a sincere apology for her behaviour.
"You were being a bitch," Arizona replies, not letting Callie off the hook just yet.
"Work was difficult today," Callie mumbles which is the understatement of the year.
"Patient troubles?" Arizona asks, picking up a set of scans sitting on the coffee table. Her movement causes Callie to make a desperate grab for the envelope knocking the two women over onto the floor. An exclamation of shock rings out around the room as Arizona's breathe whooshes from her body by Callie's weight on her. Focussed solely on the scans, Callie snatches them out of Arizona's hands and rolls off the blonde's body and retreats to the safe haven of the couch.
Leaning up on her elbows, Arizona yells "What the hell Callie!"
"Haven't you ever heard of doctor-patient confidentiality? Who give you the right to just willy-nilly search through my stuff," Callie rants as she watches Arizona still on the floor.
"I'm a doctor you gigantic idiot so that argument is null and void," Arizona replies.
Taking a deep breath, Callie knows that she is blowing this way out of proportion. Izzie's cancer seems to be incurable and Callie is at her wits end. "Are you alright?" Callie asks in a calmer voice, again realising that she will have to apologies for her behaviour.
"Am I alright? I was just shoulder charged by a crazy Latina!" Arizona sarcastically responds as she pulls herself off the ground and gingerly stands.
"Sorry."
"Sorry? That's all you have to say. What the hell is wrong with you?" Getting no response, Arizona feels her temper begin to boil at Callie's evasiveness. "Whatever. I have better things to do. Have a nice evening," Arizona snaps as she heads towards the door.
"No, wait," Callie says, blocking Arizona's retreat. "I just…" Callie starts to say as she runs her hand through her hair in worry. A cocked eyebrow from Arizona causes Callie to relinquish the scans that she had just tried so hard to protect.
Taking them from Callie's hand, Arizona asks "You aren't going to tackle me? Shoulder charge me?"
"Ha ha," Callie replies sarcastically. "Can you just tell me what you think?"
Pulling the scans out, Arizona comes face to face with a brain full of cancer. "Oh my gosh! It's… everywhere," Arizona exclaims without a lot of tact. "Sorry, that came out wrong." Silence settles between the couple as Arizona looks at the rest of the scans. "Why do you have what is clearly an oncology patient's scans?"
Callie decides that she needs to come clean and explain her behaviour. For all the research that Callie has done, she had been increasingly depressed about Izzie's chances of survival. Callie needs a sounding board for this dilemma. "I have a friend…" Callie begins, using that common starting point of a lie.
"Oh my God! These are your scans," Arizona exclaims, thinking Callie is using that well used "lie" line for a reason.
"What? No."
"You have cancer and I just yelled at you. And I invaded your privacy. I'm a terrible friend," Arizona rambles out. "It's ok, if you don't what to tell me the truth. I can leave," Arizona replies, focussing on the woman she believes is dying.
"I do not have cancer," Callie says in a slow voice, making it perfectly clear that she is telling the truth. "The scans belong to Izzie Stevens, she hasn't told anyone other than me. And now I have told you."
"Why did Izzie Stevens tell you?"
"Because she's scared. She's burying her head in the sand. And I don't know what to do about this huge, life changing secret. I've poured over these scans for hours. Talked to specialists, called in favours. No one thinks it's curable," Callie replies as she slumps back on the couch. "She's dying Arizona."
"And that's not your fault," Arizona says as she joins Callie on the lounge.
"Then why does it feel like it is," Callie heartbrokenly says. "She came to me. Wanting help, to be told that there was a solution. But I've found nothing."
Arizona has no response to this and treating family is perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect of being a surgeon. Some people are simply too sick to be saved and a surgeon dies a little bit on the inside when they can't be cured. "So, what are you going to do?"
"We", Callie says as she emphasising that this is now a joint effort, "are going to come up with a fool proof treatment plan for our reluctant patient."
"How did I get dragged into this?" Arizona asks.
"You were nosy so consider it your punishment to try and save someone's life. I refuse to stand by and let Izzie give up the fight. Because I won't be the only one who won't be able to forgive me."
"Well, I have a friend that went through residency with me at John Hopkins. He ended up specialising in oncology. He's a bit of a whiz kid. I'll call him and send the scans through. He's the guy who will come up with the plan."
"Get on that phone girl," Callie responds as the fire is re-lit in her eyes now that there is a strategy. While Arizona places the call, Callie orders a pizza. After a brief conversation, Arizona gives the thumbs up to indicate that the mission is off to a flying start.
Over pizza, the two surgeons pore over the multitude of scans that Stevens seems to have attained of herself. "Has she even seen an oncology specialist?" Arizona asks.
"Not that I'm aware of," Callie replies as she hands the blonde a slice of pizza. "Izzie is pretending that she doesn't have life-threatening disease."
"Ok, so there is one more thing I don't really understand…Izzie Stevens, a woman that you don't particularly like, has what looks to be pretty darn close to incurable cancer has confided in you. But she doesn't want you to do anything and much prefers to prance around the hospital, acting as if she doesn't have a care in the world. While her boyfriend, my intern, has no idea. And Steven's best friend, who also happens to be your ex-husband, also remains oblivious." As Arizona speaks, a look of confusion passes across Callie's face.
"I never told you that I don't like Stevens and some of that other stuff…" Callie says in bemusement.
Realising she has put her foot in her mouth, Arizona quickly tries to cover her tracks. "You know what the hospital is like, everyone talks about everyone. And you Torres, are a very popular topic of conversation."
"I wish I wasn't" Callie grumbles under her breath. "I honestly don't find my life that interesting."
Keen to change the topic of conversation, Arizona adds, "I think you need to get Izzie to an oncologist. It seems like the next logical step."
"And how exactly am I supposed to do that? I can't exactly make an appointment for her as she won't show up. And she won't go near the Oncology Wing at Seattle Grace as she'll know that I'm up to something. Essentially I'm left with kidnapping."
"You could always shoulder charge her," Arizona lightly adds.
"You aren't helping." Callie replies. "It's like I need to throw a surprise party but instead of a birthday cake, there is an oncologist there."
"Ok, weird visualisations going on over here, but that might work."
"Excuse me?" Callie asks, shocked at Arizona's response. "Did you just say that my surprise party idea might work, because I was just joking and my next suggestion was going to be sedation."
"Well, a surprise party won't work in its current form. But the idea is sound. Steven's isn't ready to face any decisions, so essentially you have to force her to attend an appointment. And let's just put sedation down as a plan B for now." Arizona adds as she lightly pats Callie's knee.
"Ok…" Callie says as she secretly suspects that the blonde has finally lost her mind.
"Here's the plan, do you know anyone at Mercy West who might help you with this little project."
"Ah sure, the Head of Ortho, he keeps offering me a job. So I guess I can call in a favour."
"Ok, so get him to call the Chief and say that he requests you and another resident for a surgery over at Mercy West. So, you and Steven's waltz over there with Steven's expecting to be part of an amazing surgery."
"I don't get it."
"Hold your horses' woman, give me a chance to tell you the whole plan."
"But there won't be a surgery."
"I know that," Arizona replies in a slow voice as if she's speaking to a small child, "And you'll know that but Steven's won't know that. So when you and Steven's arrive at Mercy West, you lead her to a consult room where a pre-arranged oncologist is waiting."
A look of understanding passes over Callie's face as she comprehends the plan. "Oh, my gosh, you are a genius!" Callie exclaims, and she pulls Arizona's face towards her and smacks a kiss on her lips. As Callie runs the plan through her head, she doesn't see the look of shock on Arizona's face as the blonde lightly touches her own lips. No one had kissed Arizona since Piper and those intimate embraces had turned out to be pretty hollow.
"Yes, yes I am," Arizona manages to stutter out.
"Are you alright? You've suddenly gone all pale," Callie asks, as she looks at the blonde.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't you have a phone call to make?"
"Oh yes," Callie says as she stands up and heads towards her phone to place the call to the Head of Ortho at Mercy West. "I think we need an operational name for this plan."
"Oh, what do you suggest?" Arizona asks, trying to remain focussed on the sounds of Callie's voice rather than the jumble of thoughts racing through her mind.
"Operation switch-a-roo," Callie replies over her shoulder as if there was no other alternative. "And let the games begin."