Hey team! Sorry this update took so long. To be honest I got kind of stuck because I wanted to add another part in, but I couldn't make it work. So here it is! It's a little short, but I'll try to get the next chapter out in the next couple of days. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Praise be to Shonda and ABC.
Chapter 10
She remained stable throughout the surgery. They stopped the brain bleed, patched up the lung, removed bone fragments, and stabilized her impacted organs. Amelia didn't leave until they were wheeling Arizona out; she found them immediately and followed close behind, standing in the doorway of Arizona's ICU room as the nurses lifted her from the gurney and into her own bed. Her stomach flipped and twisted as she watched them hook her up to every machine in the room; they monitored her pulse and her brainwaves, gave her oxygen through a nasal cannula and pumped saline into her bloodstream from an IV. As soon as the nurses stepped out of the room, declaring Arizona aptly hooked up, Amelia stepped closer, closing her fingers around the woman's wrist.
She had stopped crying sometime after Edward's had closed on Arizona's brain, but her eyes still burned and her body shook for the hours that followed. Now she found herself exhausted, but unable to close her eyes.
"There's so much more," she whispered to her girlfriend's comatose body. And there was, she realized. There was so much more to be said, to be done. There was more to be lived, and to be lived together.
This couldn't be it.
She spent the next hour whispering things she wished she had already said to Arizona. "We can live anywhere you want. We can move back to your home town to have kids and farm, for all I care. We can totally get a dog. As long as it's a big dog. I can't do the Chihuahua thing. Your eyes are so beautiful. I don't tell you enough how much I love getting lost in them. I love you, Arizona. I love you. I love you. I love you. Take my whole life, Arizona. I am all yours."
She was interrupted eventually by the clearing of a throat. She didn't turn her head.
"What happened?" Callie Torres asked hoarsely. She looked from her ex-wife's body, connected to wires and tubes and machines that clicked and beeped at intervals, to the woman whose chin was propped on the edge of the bed, hands wrapped around one of Arizona's. Amelia's face was pale and splotchy, eyes bloodshot and puffy. Her body shook from time to time.
She didn't answer Callie.
"I got a call. It was- it was Bailey. She told me there was a wreck and that Arizona was- Arizona was in surgery and I just… How did this happen?"
It was silent, save for the beeping and whistling of the machines, for a moment.
"I don't know," Amy finally said, her voice thin and hoarse.
"You don't… know?"
"Richard said that she was hit by a semi," she said, her voice cracking. "She got knocked off the bridge. Into the canal."
"Oh my God," Callie whispered. She looked at the woman's body – the paper thin gown, the stitches, the cannula, the IVs – and she felt her head spin. "Where was she? How did…?"
Amy shrugged her shoulders and let out a puff of air that sounded like an ironic laugh. "I don't know. I guess she was coming home."
Callie choked, coughing, "Wait, when?"
Amy shrugged again, "I got the call around nine. I guess probably forty five minutes or an hour before that."
"Oh God," Callie breathed, falling down into the arm chair in the corner of the room. Her brain was processing slower than usual as she started to lay out a timeline. She had argued with Arizona at, what, 7:30? Maybe later? Oh God oh God oh God, my last conversation with Arizona I was yelling at her. She remembered their conversation, slowly at first. "She's my daughter too!" "Do you love her?" "I do love her."
Callie didn't tell Amelia what Arizona had told her. Instead, she cried into her hands.
She awoke to the beeping of status monitors and the whistling sound of Arizona's breathing through her nasal cannula.
She'd fallen asleep squeezed next to Arizona on the tiny hospital bed. Her arm was slung cautiously over the blonde's front, strategically placed as not to touch any incision sites. Her chin rested on her shoulder, nose mere inches from Arizona's neck; she could smell the sweet scent of her lotion, even through the sterile odor that the hospital permeated.
No one else was in the room, now. Just Amy and Arizona. She looked at her face, peaceful though still swollen around the stitches etched into the skin of her otherwise flawless forehead. She looked as beautiful as ever.
If only she would wake up.
Amy stayed there, observing and memorizing every inch of her girlfriend's jaw, the bridge of her nose, how her lips swelled into a pucker in her sleep, until an unfamiliar voice broke into her thoughts.
"Oh, Arizona."
Amy lifted her head to see the spitting image of Arizona, plus about twenty five years, enter with a formidable man that could be none other than Colonel Daniel Robbins.
Amy nearly fell off the bed as she struggled to sit up; this was not how she imagined meeting her girlfriend's parents. Both Barbara and Daniel Robbins were looking at her, curious and confused.
"Hello, there," Barbara said, trying to meet Amelia with a warm smile.
It turned out more like a grimace.
"H-H-Hello," Amy stammered. She started to step towards the couple but changed her mind, instead stamping her foot down awkwardly. This was going well.
Luckily, the doctor escorting Arizona's parents was there to pick up Amelia's slack.
"Colonel Robbins, Mrs. Robbins, this is Dr. Amelia Shepherd," Owen announced, gesturing towards Amy. "Arizona's…"
"Girlfriend?" The Colonel finished. Amy nodded quickly.
"Yes, girlfriend. Hi," she reached out to shake his hand. His nearly swallowed her own hand, enveloping it in a firm, intimidating grasp.
Shaking hands was not Barbara Robbins's style, however. She opened her arms and hugged Amy tight. "Hello, Amelia. Arizona's told me so much about you."
"She has?" Amelia answered, her voice sounding small. For some reason she didn't feel like the kind of girl that other girls tell their mothers about.
Barbara chuckled warmly, "Oh, yes! She just adores you, honey."
Amy nodded slowly, her lips tugging into a smile, "Yeah. I adore her, as well."
Owen cleared his throat, excusing himself uncomfortably. Amy felt a pang of guilt rush through her chest, but it was soon replaced with the terror of meeting Arizona's parents, yet again.
"I'm sorry that we, uh, that we had to meet like this," she said quietly.
Colonel Robbins nodded, "Yes, well, it's certainly not ideal. But thank you for being here for her. I know she appreciates you."
Amelia accepted his gratitude with a nod, falling back into the chair by Arizona's bedside. The Colonel and Mrs. Robbins made themselves comfortable, quietly talking amongst themselves. Amelia tried to listen for a moment, but found herself drifting back into her own thoughts. How could this have happened? She was so overwhelmed that she couldn't think straight. She felt sick. She felt angry. She felt so very sad.
"Amelia, dear?" Barbara Robbins's sweet southern drawl broke into her thoughts. The brunette looked up at the woman, a faltering smile on her lips. "Why don't you go get something to eat? We'll have them page you if she wakes up while you're gone."
Amelia nodded, rising slowly from her seat. "Thank you," she mumbled quietly as she walked out of Arizona's room.
She looked back at her girlfriend one more time before turning and heading towards the elevators.