The reason I am in your life ch.5
"Okay Dr. Torres, sign these last two papers and you can go home." the nurse said.
Callie quickly signed the papers as Arizona stood behind the wheelchair.
"Here you go."
"Thanks Dr. Torres. Let's hope the next time I see you, you're barking orders at me from a lab coat and not a hospital gown.
Callie laughed. "Come on Arizona. Take me home."
"With pleasure."
Mark met up with them at the front of the hospital. Both of them helped Callie into her apartment, setting her on the couch.
"You okay? Do you need another pillow? A blanket?"
"Arizona, the only thing I want right now is for you to sit next to me and hold me."
Mark handed Callie a glass of water and her pain meds before slipping out quietly. Arizona did as asked and pulled Callie into her arms. It had been days, maybe even weeks, since she had held her girlfriend in her arms like this. They sighed and Arizona pressed a kiss to Callie's hair.
"This was all my fault." she whispered.
Callie didn't say anything because she thought that she probably wasn't meant to hear it.
The next thing Callie was aware of was waking up alone on the couch. After clearing her vision she looked over to see Arizona fumbling around in the kitchen. She sat up and watched her girlfriend do numerous things at once. It wasn't until Arizona turned to put a dirty dish in the sink that she noticed that Callie was awake.
"Hey, sleepy head. Have a good nap?" she smiled.
Callie slowly got up and walked carefully over to the breakfast bar and sat down.
"Yeah. What are you cooking?"
"Oh, just some pasta and sauce. We need to go grocery shopping soon."
"Arizona, we need to talk." Callie said with a serious face.
"About what?"
"This." she gestured to her wounds.
"Do we have to right now. Dinner is almost done and you really need to eat something."
Callie sighed, wanting to continue but refrained herself yet again.
They ate dinner in silence. After cleaning up they locked up for the night and headed to the bedroom. Arizona helped Callie take a shower, trying to be as careful as possible. Both women got into their pjs and climbed into bed. Twenty minutes went by and Callie couldn't take it anymore.
"Now we need to talk."
"Calliope, I'm tired. Let's just go to sleep."
"No! We are going to talk. I heard you earlier."
"What do you mean?"
"I heard you say that this was all your fault."
"I thought you were asleep."
"Well, I wasn't so you are going to tell me right now why you think this was all your fault."
Arizona took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She knew she wasn't getting out of this one .
"Tabatha Jenkins was a parent of a patient of mine. I treated her son, Bobby, six years ago for Neurofibromatosis type-1."
"What happened?'
"We found some tumors and I suggested that we go in and remove them. The surgery was going well until out of nowhere Bobby began coding. We spent ten minutes trying to revive him but he was gone."
"Did you ever find out why he didn't survive?"
"Um." Arizona shrugged. "We didn't have a documented answer. I just assumed that his body couldn't handle the surgery as well as I thought. I spent weeks going over everything and I couldn't figure it out. So, I finished my contract and I moved here. I was never contacted about this case so I thought that maybe Mrs. Jenkins mourned her son and moved on. Apparently she didn't and she blames me. She knew that the best way to make me suffer was to get you. She wanted to ruin my life the way I ruined hers. Calliope, I am so sorry."
Tears began flowing down Arizona's face.
"Hey, hey. It's okay." Callie comforted. "I'm okay. I'm going to heal. You did nothing wrong. There was nothing you could've foreseen that Bobby was going to die on that table."
"I can't let this happen again, Callie. I have to choose. You or surgery."
"No, you don't. You are not going to choose. You're going to have both. Arizona, we are surgerons. You know that surgery can go either way, good or bad. Chances are that I might get harassed by a patient who thinks I put in a bone the wrong way. Things happen."
"Callie I can't."
"Dammit Arizona, I did not get shot at and fight for my life to lose you. You are in my life for a reason. To show me that there is someone who loves me to no end. Someone who I can love unconditionally. I'm not going to let you give up on us because you got scared. You're stuck with me." Callie smiled.
Arizona looked into those big beautiful brown eyes and knew that she meant every word of it.
"I'm stuck with you, huh?"
Callie grinned. "Every beauty and flaw. I'm not going anywhere."
Arizona sighed. "Ok." she leaned in to kiss the woman that she loved.
Pulling back she said. "But if you get shot at again because of me I'm leaving you."
Callie just laughed and leaned in for another kiss.
The End