Yo!

Seven months? SEVEN MONTHS?! I knew I hadn't updated in ages, but I never realised it literally was – ages! All I can say is I'm very sorry! I'm definitely seeing this story through to the end, and although I can't promise quick updates, I CAN say they sure as hell wont be seven months apart again! So apologies for that. And to the people who've been asking me to update, I haven't been ignoring you, I've just been busy, lazy, and distracted! But thanks for sticking with me, I really do appreciate it :) To everyone - Hope you're all still being rockstars, and don't hate me too much for my laziness! This is short I know, but tis a prelude for events to come.. Mwahahah.

Oh and if you hadn't already guessed, Ellie is a psycho. Cool.

Enjoy!

A billion and one pieces of her reflection stared back up at her from her shard covered floor. The distorted, jagged fragments of her face seemed oddly peaceful to her. Ellie did not know how long she stared at the shattered mirror, couldn't remember what time she'd come home, couldn't remember anything except the blinding rage, growing ever so impatient, that had finally caused her to break, lash out, scream and pound relentlessly at her wall length mirror until finally, it was all gone. And for a minute, just for one, tiny little moment, she had found a sense of peace.

But that was short lived as always, as images of her seared through her relentless brain. She was aware she was changing, knew something was wrong with her, but it still felt so right. If she could just remove the problem that was causing this insanity, this persistent, unyieldingly merciless pain, then she would be alright again, she'd be back to herself, back to getting whatever she wanted, whoever she wanted. And Arizona would be hers. But she wasn't hers. She did not belong, somebody else owned her now.

Her face contorted into a spasm of that all too familiar brewing rage as she thought again of her. Taking a step forward, she winced as the shards bit into her bare feet. Pushing her weight down, she took another step as she thought of grey eyes. The emotional pain soon turned physical as her feet seared with the new sensation. Her blood was red. She looked at it for a while. Red. She laughed, the hollow sound echoed off the walls around her. Of course it was red. Even her pain, her own, simple, biological response was just another reminder, a reminder of the problem. She imagined Arizona tangling her hands through hair that wasn't hers, hair that was not her own, deep brown, but hair that was red. Her teeth gritting together, she brought her foot crashing down this time. Fucking red. There was no escape, everywhere she went, everything she did, every thought she had was her. The problem. Addison fucking Montgomery.

CRASH

Her left foot assaulted the glass, stomping away the thoughts, destroying her reflection, destroying the red. Her breathing deepened. She brought her knee up once more, and threw her weight onto it, yelping slightly this time as a particularly large piece found its way into her heel. She didn't stop though, and brought it down again, again, again, and again as she screamed, she wanted her to feel this pain, wanted her to drip in that fucking red, wanted her gone. Her feet were screaming for release as she persisted, determined to grind the shards into oblivion. Maybe then she would feel better, maybe then it would be over. Oh, how it burned...

A flash across her mind. She stopped. Burn. She looked at the crimson streaked floor, looked at her inflamed feet. Yes. That was it.. That was her answer, her connection. It was so obvious.. So fucking obvious! They were all the same, they were all connected. Blood, destruction, flames, burns, Addison. ... They were all red.

Arizona's eyes opened slowly, squinting at the morning light shining it's way through her bronzed blind, the room basking in a comforting golden glow. The slow and steady breathing behind her was the next thing she registered, as well as the comforting arm slung lazily over her side. She smiled into her pillow. So, Addison had been the big spoon this time. That was a first, but oddly, she decided she liked it. Lifting the sleep induced arm slightly, she rolled over so she was facing the red head, and felt her smile grow ten folds as she took in her sleeping girlfriend. Addison, the Addison, the infamous, domineering, brilliant Doctor Montgomery could not look any more innocent, and lullingly peaceful as she did now. Tracing her fingertips over the arm that still wrapped round her, Arizona watched her for a while, the rise and fall over her chest as she slept, and wondered what she was dreaming about.

Craning her neck up to look over the other woman's head, the alarm clock on the side of her bed told her it was only 5.30 in the morning.

Perfect. She thought to herself as she lay back down, they had another half an hour to simply lay there. Feeling more content than she had in years, the blonde leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on Addison's forehead, nuzzling into her mass of brilliantly red bed hair. Perhaps slightly more messy than it normally would have been, but granted, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. Arizona smiled again to herself as she replayed their nights activities, and added another kiss, just for good measure. Addison shifted slightly, and Arizona worried she'd woke her too soon, but the red head merely grunted and shuffled forward, the arm around Arizona's side tightened slightly as Addison buried her head into the crook of the blonde's neck, head resting beneath her chin, where she continued to snooze.

Arizona wrapped her own arms around her girlfriend and snuggled down into the new position, finding it the most comfortable yet, it wasn't long before she too fell back into a contented doze, bathing in the peaceful, happy morning.

Cristina Yang was hungover. Her head was a train wreck, she reeked of stale tequila, her eyes were fighting to stay open, and her mood was literally a flame waiting to be fuelled. She hated interns. Despised them, and today of all days was not her day to be assigned both her own and then have to baby sit Bailey's every time she got an "important call from Ben." It was fair to say, Cristina was a pissed of woman this morning. Spotting Meredith across the hall, she made her way over, in desperate need of a best friend rant.

"Holy crap, you look how I feel." Was her friend's greeting as she reached her.

"We are never drinking tequila again." Yang responded, nursing her throbbing temples. Meredith merely scoffed, but stopped quickly as the blood rushed to her head.

"Cristina, they're staring at you." She nodded her head behind the Asian woman's, who turned to find the group of interns, huddled like ducklings, waiting nervously.

"Ugh, they're Bailey's. She got a 'call'."

"Does it start with 'on' and end in 'room'?" Meredith asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow.

Yang sighed.

"Yep. Bailey gets to go have sex buddy time whilst I get lumbered with her insufferable idiot interns, honestly Mer, pigeons learn faster than they do."

"So palm them off, give them away to some other poor soul."

As if by coincidence, Ellie chose that moment to make and appearance, skulking out of a nearby classroom.

"Hey!" Meredith called out to her, she turned to look at them.

"Whoa, looks like we weren't the only ones who drank a lake last night." Cristina snorted, taking in Ellie's bloodshot eyes, bedraggled hair and unkempt clothing.

"What?!" Ellie snapped at them, eyes wild.

Meredith frowned. "Take Cristina's interns?" It wasn't a question, but the nurse ignored her.

"I didn't sleep last night." She replied. "I was doing things. Collecting."

"Um... Okay, but I need these guys-"

"Would you say fire is orange, or more of a red?"

Meredith recoiled in confusion. "Huh?"

Ellie's eyes darted around the room, and Cristina got the sense she wasn't even aware that they were there.

"Umm.."

"Doesn't matter." Ellie shrugged the question away, walking off with a slight limp, muttering to herself.

"What a psycho." Cristina mused.

Meredith ran a hand through her stiff hair, which had the straw like texture of old hairspray. She wished she'd had time to wash it this morning.

"Yeah.. And we've still got our problem group."

"Group? More like a herd of idiotic lambs." Cristina muttered, turning her attentions back to the interns, who hadn't moved.

"What?! Do I look like your mom? Go find something to do." She waved them away, and they scattered. Meredith smirked.

"Coffee?"

"Coffee." Her best friend agreed, and they were off. The strange encounter with that nurse woman completely forgotten as the conversation turned to their respective boyfriends, surgery, and tequila.

The soft and gentle press of lips on her own drew Addison from dream world as her hands rose to explore the reason for this strange waking sensation. When they found hips, she decided immediately that this was her favourite way to wake up, and her smile was enough to tell Arizona this as the other woman leaned back to look at her.

"Good morning." She said simply, widening the slightly sleep induced grin that was on her girlfriend's face, a look she found undeniably cute.

"Hmm, it most certainly is." Addison replied, pulling the blonde back down to lay on top of her as she returned the favour.

"Wow, someone's perky, I never bagged you for a morning person." Arizona teased in-between kisses, each one growing deeper and longer as they took turns.

"Well, you know what they say about early birds." Addison said as she rolled them over.

"And what's that?" Arizona murmured, enjoying the feeling of her girlfriend's nose tickling her jaw as she brushed kisses along her neck.

"I don't know." Addison muttered into Arizona's skin. "Something about worms, but I just wanted to sound clever."

Arizona giggled. "Well luckily I know I'm dating a world class surgeon with a brain the size of a house, or I might have doubted you." She teased. Addison drew her face back up to meet her eyes, a playful look danced across her features.

"Is that so? Well then I guess it's a shame that your – suspended – world class surgeon gets the day in bed, whilst you have to go to work in ohhhh, twenty minutes?" Although she was joking, her heart still sank a little at the thought of being separated from Arizona so soon. It was the blonde's turn to look playful however, as she quickly replied.

"It is a huge shame you're right, I'd booked an hours lunch strictly for office sex, but I guess I'll just have to keep kicking ass and saving the tiny humans instead now, and you'll have to go without." She grinned devilishly at Addison's raised eyebrows, though her expression was quickly mirrored as the other woman looked at the clock again.

"Didn't we agree you had twenty minutes?"

Arizona laughed loudly as she was rolled over again, Addison catching her lips, melting her into a state of pure bliss. Waking up early was definitely worth it.

Ellie drummed her fingertips impatiently against the desk, ignoring the large stack of charts that sat to her right. Could she go through with this? Every tap of flesh against wood was a beat of her conscience as it fought with her desires. Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes. It would take time. Time to think, time to plan and prepare, time to accomplish. The timing had to be perfect. She had to be alone, completely alone. Ellie couldn't risk Arizona being hurt in the process. Arizona getting hurt.. The thought made her shudder. Granted, her suspension had meant Ellie got to enjoy peaceful days without her presence festering over her work, and it meant Arizona was alone some more, but there was still the knowledge that every night, the blonde was probably still going back to her. There was no way out of it, Ellie had tried everything. Her list had been fully ticked off, surely, her life should have been destroyed by now?

It was the only thing left. She couldn't hurt Arizona, that was unthinkable. And she didn't really want to harm anyone else either, if she could help it. Which led her to her next problem – where was She now? Ellie had seen to it that there was no home left, that had been destroyed. The corner of her mouth twitched at the memory. So where would She live now? Was she staying with Arizona? No.. They wouldn't move in that fast.. It was too soon. Shepherd? Doubtful, he was still crazy about Grey, Ellie saw them everywhere together. Bailey? Teddy? Callie? …. Callie.

Ellie's brain switched on like a light bulb. Of course! How had she not even considered it? Callie was Her best friend, her 'rock' of sorts. It had to be her house! A wave of excitement washed over the young woman as she grabbed the abandoned charts, happy to work now she had plans.

She was halfway through the third one however, when something niggled at the back of her mind. What if it wasn't Callie? What if she was mistaken... Could she risk it? Put the orthopaedic surgeon in danger, a woman she hardly knew, a woman with a life, friends, a career, a partner, something to live for? She would be careful, that she knew. But then, if she'd made a mistake, if She wasn't living there.. Would it be worth it? Her fingers resumed their beat on the desk.

No. She couldn't allow that to happen. Callie getting hurt in the process was not something she wanted, but if it was unavoidable then so be it, but Callie getting hurt for nothing, was something else. She couldn't waste that chance. She had to be sure of Her whereabouts before she acted. But how could she be sure?

The answer, she realised quickly, was Callie again. She would simply ask the Latina where She was staying.

But that might seem a strange question, and will definitely look suspicious when it happens.

The voice in her head had a point.. She sighed.

"Striden, are you doing those damn charts or what? It's like speaking to an intern!" Erica Hahn's snarky tone snapped Ellie out of her internal conversation.

"Huh? Err yeah, getting there Dr Hahn."

Icy blue eyes rolled as the other woman huffed, grabbed what was already done and strode off.

Frustrated, Ellie stared into space again, attempting to resume her thoughts. Then an idea hit her, and she suddenly felt incredibly stupid. Callie! She could use Callie. Cursing herself for not thinking of it earlier, she hastily pulled out her list and began to make notes, determined not to forget a single thing. Montgomery would listen to Callie, do anything for her, and vice versa. So, if Callie were to stand in the way of their relationship, Montgomery would have to listen, she would have to leave Arizona.. It was either that or lose her most treasured friend. Yes. It was genius. And if it played out, she wouldn't have to hurt anyone.. Perhaps.

But then, Callie would probably be loyal.. That was a given. She thought for a second, looked at the empty desk space where the completed charts had previously sat, and got her answer. Montgomery was not Callie's world. Although she came a close second, there would ultimately be someone else Callie would place above her. Erica was Callie's universe. She was her everything. So, if it came down to the option of losing one, Ellie knew what Callie's choice would be. And plus, she hated Erica anyway, as did most of the hospital.. So blackmailing Callie with her was not going to be difficult. And on the plus side, if Erica had to undergo some suffering to give Callie a nudge, then she wouldn't feel as guilty about it as harming the Ortho attending herself. It was pure brilliance.

Time to get to work.

Thank you, muchos lovin' :)