FIX YOU

AN: Hope you guys enjoyed Grey's and the hour long escape from reality. Always sucks to get back to the real world, but life goes on and oftentimes leads you to very interesting revelations. Getting back to studying made me realise two things:

1. I still cannot go to morning lectures without having eaten breakfast/a banana before. I will fall asleep – it is inevitable. The same goes for classes at nap time, i.e. in the middle of the afternoon, and in the evening, and…

2. People only ever seem to use the LGBT office for their daily 5 free pages of printing - 10 if you print double sided ;). So riddle me this: where all my lesbians at? Or are the people who come in under the pretence of using the printer actually gay but not out yet? There's a social experiment in there somewhere…

3. There is no three because I only discovered two things.

Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't make money from it, just passing through – tumbleweed style.

Chapter 3: Renovations and Invitations

Life is one of those things that most people take for granted. You breathe in, breathe out without ever really noticing. Your body changes constantly, blood is pumping through your veins, cells are dying and being renewed, but you live your life, go about your day completely unaware of the complexity that makes you, you.

Not, that is, until you've really, truly, been faced with your own mortality.

As a marine, Colonel Daniel Robbins had faced that on more than one occasion. In war, the sad truth was that it was either kill or be killed, so you did the former. You face your own mortality with a gun in hand, a gun that gives you the chance to create your own destiny. Kill or be killed.

But not everyone was lucky enough to face their own mortality with such favourable odds. Not everyone has the chance to face up to and go toe to toe with the ending of their very being with their own hands. Sometimes you have to rely upon those around you or upon people you've never met in your life to fight those battles for you. That, in the opinion of Col. Daniel Robbins, USMC, was the great tragedy, especially for the young – that there were some battles that destiny didn't let you fight.

"Mom, you have outdone yourself once again." Arizona managed to mumble out despite the inordinate amount of food pressed into her mouth. "Best ever!"

A small chuckle came in reply, Barbara Robbins always more than happy to feed her daughter, especially when she was so enthusiastic about her cooking.

"Didn't you say that last time, dear?" Barbara asked, shaking her head slightly at Arizona's antics, the mess around her face more resembling that of a 5 year old than a 25 year old.

Her daughter simply nodded in response, another mouthful keeping her tongue otherwise engaged. Barbara couldn't help but wonder how exactly the young blonde had managed to eat so much food in so little time. It was actually quite worrying, if she was honest. She loved her daughter dearly, and seeing her stomach explode from eating too much too quickly wasn't exactly something that Barbara wanted to see happen – or clean up after.

"Zona, you should slow down a bit. That food isn't running anywhere."

"Didn't you say that last time?" Arizona teased, smirking as she gulped down the last of her current mouthful and taking a quick sip of water.

"Daniel, please tell your daughter to stop eating so quickly. I swear on my mother's recipe book she's going to explode." Barbara pleaded with her husband as her daughter took another monstrous bite, knowing one word from him was often worth a thousand from her.

"Arizona…" Daniel warned never looking up from the newspaper he was reading, the command in his voice having been perfected over a lifetime in the Marine Corps.

"Fine!" Arizona huffed, her arms crossing her chest as she continued to chew, slightly more slowly, on her current mouthful. "It's just that its soo tasty!"

Swallowing down the remaining food, Arizona smiled devilishly at her mother. "Mom, you're just too good of a cook. It's really not my fault. You should take it as a compliment."

"You could savour it you know." Barbara replied with a roll of her eyes, though a small smile could be seen tugging at her lips. "That'd be a compliment too."

"Don't have the willpower." The younger blonde stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Sure." Barbara drawled, knowing just how stalwart the blonde could be when she set her mind to something, especially if it involved some sort of competition with her brother.

Letting her daughter finish the remains of her meal, Barbara couldn't help but remember a time when she thought that she was going to lose her daughter, when she wouldn't eat – couldn't… When she was pale and thin as a rake, her body riddled with painful sores on her usually perfect skin. To think of the possibility that all that was going to happen again… Barbara couldn't stand it.

"So…" The elder woman whispered, a sudden weight being added to the atmosphere of the room once the seemingly innocent word was spoken.

"Uh-oh." Arizona sighed, dropping her fork on the plate with a clang. "I know that voice."

"How are you feeling?" The sympathy in her mother's voice almost more than Arizona could handle.

"Fine." Arizona responded shortly, getting up to put her now empty plate in the dishwasher, and to get some sort of distance between herself and the interrogation that her mother was no doubt about to spring on her.

"You sure?" Barbara continued from her position at the dining table in the same tone, making Arizona roll her eyes.

"I feel exactly as I always feel." Arizona replied sharply. She knew it was harsh and it was harder for her parents than for her, but goddammit if she didn't want to talk about it all the time. It was back. There was nothing she could do about it, other than take her treatments and go to the doctors, so she wasn't going to dwell on it for longer than she had to. Why the hell did Tim have to get ill? That would mean that she wouldn't be here answering to the Spanish Inquisition. He never asked the awkward questions…

"Work is okay?" Barbara asked trying to sound more nonchalant, but failing miserably.

"Yup." Her daughter answered, sticking, it seemed to one word answers.

"Not too strenuous." The elder Robbins continued, her façade of nonchalance quickly fading.

"Mom."

"I'm sorry dear. It's just that I worry about you." Barbara exhaled, her voice not above a whisper.

"I'm okay. I promise." Arizona sighed once again, rubbing her eyes as she leant backwards on the kitchen counter. "There are good days and bad days. Luckily there are way more good days than bad days. It's not as bad as before."

"I'm glad." A small smile pulled at the corner of Barbara's lips, happy that even though her daughter wasn't healthy like she wanted, she seemed happy and, at least, wasn't as ill as she had envisioned either.

"Me too, Mom." Arizona whispered, coming back to sit next to her mother. "Me too."

"I wish this hadn't happened to you Arizona. One time was bad enough, but again?"

Seeing her mother's eyes becoming glassy, Arizona grasps her mother's hand, squeezing it tightly – assuring the woman of her virility, letting her know that it was all going to be okay.

"They caught it early this time mom. It's going to be a walk in the park compared to last time." Arizona almost whispered. Last time had been hell, the treatments had been harsh and had hit her hard, but all in all, she had been lucky. She was standing here now, so she took that as a win, despite the fact that it was back – that she had to go through all that again just because her body seemed to think that she hadn't taken enough punishment from cancer before. "Besides, we always knew this was a possibility."

"Possibility and actuality are completely different things, Zona." Barbara sniffed, rubbing lightly at her eyes, wiping away a tear before it had a chance to fall.

"I'm sorry. I…" Arizona began, but the words died on her lips. How did you console the person who bore you, who bought you up, who has loved you unconditionally since the day you were born – perhaps even before? She hadn't had to deal with this before. When she'd first gotten Leukaemia, she'd been a teenager. Sure, her parents probably felt then exactly what they were feeling now, but she was younger, and they had been nothing but a tower of strength to her during that whole time, but now… Now it was different. Now she didn't need protecting – not quite so much, anyways.

"I love you." Arizona finished, the only words that she could find that would hopefully ease her mother's pain.

"Oh my little baby. I love you too."

Callie couldn't sleep. As much as she tried, the thought of seeing Arizona again kept her eyes from closing, kept her heart beating so fast that she could find no respite in sleep. Letting out a frustrated sigh and thrashing her legs about to try and find a more comfortable position, Callie attempted to calm her mind, reasoning that she wanted to look her best for the beautiful blonde carpenter that was coming tomorrow morning.

How ridiculous was this? She didn't even know the first thing about the woman and here she was, losing sleep over something that never was and may never be.

Callie closed her eyes once more, a deep breath being released from her tired body. Listening to the noise of the waves lapping leisurely against the shore, Callie couldn't help but let herself begin to imagine a certain blonde dressed in the world's tiniest teal coloured string bikini running into those waves, the salt water sliding smoothly over taught muscles, the partices catching the sun to illuminate her porcelain skin in a wondrous glow that had Callie almost believe she'd died and gone to gay heaven.

Licking her lips subconsciously, Callie watched as the blonde sauntered out of the water towards her, a mischievous smirk playing on her lips letting the Latina know that Arizona was all to well aware of what she was doing to her. Never blinking as Arizona's figure became ever increasingly closer, Callie couldn't help but gasp as the blonde made it within arm's reach, Callie's fingers literally itching to touch moist skin, her hands burrowing into the soft sand beneath her.

"Hi." The blonde smiled, the word so innocent, yet the fire burning in the woman's eyes anything but.

"Hey…" Callie breathed, her heart feeling as though it was about to beat out of her chest as she watched droplet after droplet of water fall down the woman's tight stomach and under the tiny bikini into forbidden territory.

Closing her eyes to try and rid her mind of the beautiful, completely inappropriate thoughts that were running through her head, the Latina gasped, a sudden pressure on her lips, the taste of salt invading her mouth mingled with something sweet, something that reminded Callie of cherries…

Hands grasping at hips for purchase, Callie drew the woman atop her closer into her body, deepening the kiss, the distance between them unbearable. The feel of Arizona's laugh into their kiss sent shivers down the Latina's spine - on one of the hottest days of the summer - the feel of cool hands playing at the base of her bosom making her breath hitch.

"Arizona…" Callie panted as fair hands moved slowly down her stomach, gently dipping into her navel before coming to rest at the hem of her bikini shorts. Looking up into the blonde's eyes, Callie moaned out in unadulterated pleasure, an unseen and unexpected finger slipping inside her soaked core, dragging across an engorged bundle of nerves as…

BANG!

A sudden, piercing bang jolted the Latina upwards, her eyes opening to the morning sun as she realised that the beach, the woman, the… all of it... was all a dream, a fantasy. The same could not be said for the wetness pooling in her panties, however.

Callie kicked around in her bed, the sheets having stuck to her sweat drenched legs made it hard for the woman to extricate herself efficiently from the bed prison that she found herself in. With a final grunt of annoyance, the sheets finally slid smoothly off of tanned legs, Callie immediately on her feet to run full pelt, down two stairs at a time towards the door. Not pausing once, flinging the door open, the only thing the Latina could think of to say when she's met with the beautiful face of the blonde woman of her dreams is:

"Yo."

Because, apparently, she is a 16 year old boy who dresses like a tool and enjoys drinking lukewarm beer in his parents' garage whilst reading his Dad's musty, old and supposedly hidden copies of Hustler.

Way to go Calliope.

"Oh, y'know… This and that…" Arizona answered, her fingers dancing lightly over the exposed pipe, trying to gauge whether or not the plumbing needed gutting on top of all the other jobs that were piling up in the house. "But the thing I love doing most, at the moment at least, is surfing."

"Woah…" Callie replied, her eyebrows rising in surprise and respect – she'd never had the guts to go try it herself. "That's pretty intense!"

"I dunno about that, I don't think I'm good enough for it to get that intense!" Arizona chuckled, lifting herself to her feet and brushing the dust from the wooden floor off her knees. "You ride?"

"Oh… the waves?" Callie asked, shaking her head lightly. "No… I've never surfed, which is probably a bit strange seeing as I grew up in Florida."

"You grew up in Florida?" The blonde woman almost squealed, at which the Latina couldn't help but smile. Typically, Callie wasn't the type to find squealing cute, but on Arizona… It was cute and hot all at the same time.

"Yup." Callie smiled, looking at the floor when she couldn't keep eye contact with the blonde, the memories of her dream earlier coming flooding back to her. "Miami born and bred."

"I loved Miami!" Arizona cried, grabbing the Latina's forearm that was currently resting above her bosom, crossed with the opposite limb.

"You've been?" Callie inquired somewhat incredulously, it wasn't that Miami wasn't a popular tourist destination, but Callie found it hard to see what exactly the appeal was when the Pacific was right on the blonde's doorstep, right here, right now.

"Yeah, we drove down on one of the long weekends once when we lived in Jacksonville." Letting go of Callie's arm, Arizona walked the short distance to the dining table and picked up her clipboard full of, what Callie assumed were, notes, calculations and estimations.

"Don't tell me you're from Florida too!" The Latina questioned incredulously. It probably wasn't that strange to find someone else from Florida in the golden state, especially in the Los Angeles area, but she wasn't used to just running into people from her home state – most of the people she'd met in Seattle were from Washington which was to be expected, she supposed.

"Actually no, sorry to disappoint." Arizona apologised, clipboard still In hand as she stared into the Latina's deep brown eyes. "I was actually born in Virginia."

"Okay…" Callie drawled, raising her eyebrows at the blonde's confession. That's at least 3 different states in about 25 years, and not even ones that are that close to each other…

"My Dad is... was... a marine, so we moved around a lot." Arizona answered the unasked question, her voice almost drowned out by the sound of her pencil scribbling furiously on a piece of paper. "My brother Tim was born in Colorado, my mom is from Massachusetts and my Dad is Seattle through and through. Go Seahawks!"

"Nah-uh, go Dolphins!" The Latina jested, smiling at the memories of her childhood and the games she watched back home in Florida before remembering everything that had... occured in Seattle... "I just moved down from Seattle, actually."

"Really..?" Arizona replied slightly less enthusiastically than before, noticing the almost imperceptible change in the Latina's demeanour. "You should come and meet my dad, he loves talking about his childhood and Seattle, so I bet you guys would get on like a house on fire."

Halting mentally in her tracks, Callie did a double take. Did Arizona just invite her to come and visit her parents? Callie mentally berated herself once again. Why did her mind always make things more complicated than they needed to be?

"So… how long have you been living in California?" Callie implored, looking for any question that would distract her from the one that was currently floating around in her head.

"Long enough to call it home, I suppose." Arizona answered with a shrug, her eyes glued to the plumbing of the kitchen sink. "Part of me misses the open road though, y'know, hoboing it out for a bit. If I could…"

Arizona shook her head gently, squeezing her eyes shut tight against the angry thoughts that she knew were part and parcel of her illness. Sometimes you could be completely nonchalant, live by the ethos of live and let live, but other times… You got angry at everything that it meant you couldn't do – even if it was miniscule and wasn't even something you really wanted to do in the first place.

"Why don't you go? What stops you from 'hoboing it out'?" Callie enquired, genuinely interested in Arizona's answer. The more Callie found out about the woman the more she wanted to learn, and she was sure that this woman, this carpenter, this handywoman, had a lifetime of answers for Callie to discover.

"Life…" Arizona answered quietly, the cryptic answer bringing a cloud over the atmosphere of the room, making Callie wish she could take back the question and never ask it. Berating herself once again for bringing the jovial atmosphere down, Arizona decided to make amends. "Plus the fact that I'm pretty sure I would probably die within the first week, getting run over by a freight train or something."

Grinning mischievously Arizona tucked her pencil behind her ear and pulled the piece of paper she had been writing on roughly out of her clipboard and folded it in half before handing it gently to the Latina.

"This, is for you." Arizona smiled almost shyly before quickly stepping backwards towards the door. "I'm just going to pop out to my van and get some supplies so we can get started here. I think stripping off the old plaster from the walls is as good a place to start as any."

"Right…" Callie replied, her hand still held out towards the blonde, the piece of paper in it still tightly folded.

Watching the blonde woman leave the house, Callie mentally berated herself. She really did hate to see that woman go, but boy, did she like to watch her leave. Remembering the piece of paper in her hand, Callie peeled the page open, an instant smile forming on her face at the image laid out before her. Rather than the prices, costs and estimations Callie had thought that Arizona was calculating all the time the pair had been weaving their way around the house, the blonde woman had actually been drawing.

The face that met her was a mirror of her very own, long black hair framing the shy smile playing on her lips. The detail within the eyes looking back at her, the way Arizona had managed to capture the light dancing within them, had Callie enraptured. As she traced her fingers lightly across the pencil lines of her own jaw, Callie's eyes were drawn to her own lips, just as striking as her own eyes.

Jumping at the noise of the old door creaking open, Callie's grip on the precious paper faltered, the leaf floating impossibly slowly towards the ground, the Latina seemingly unable to stop its disastrous descent in a world of slow motion.

Helplessly watching as a sun kissed arm gently cradled the portrait out of the air, Callie snapped her eyes up to her saviours – to the eyes that she dreamt about, those pools of azure that belonged to one Arizona Robbins.

"You draw… Can you do everything, Arizona Robbins?" Callie whispered, a breathy quality about her voice, the thermostat feeling as though it had been turned up 1000 degrees in mere seconds.

"I only draw beautiful women, Callie." The blonde smiled back, mischief playing on magenta lips. "And… Maybe… People do tell me that I'm gifted with my hands."

A/N 2: Found out where the experiment was from earlier. Research begins first thing Thursday morning. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please let me know what you think! Also, if you have any ideas as to where you want this story to be heading, then hit me up! I'm all ears. No literally, my body is made out of ears. Creepy…