CHAPTER THREE

"And then – then Maura said to me 'so you're a lesbian? Oh, that explains the way you've been looking at my Maximus gluteus all these months', and I swear," Arizona said, laughing so much that she could barely get the words out between her giggles, "I swear, I never looked at her ass, I didn't, not before she mentioned it!"

Maura smiled, "But you were checking out my Maximus gluteus, I was sure of it."

Arizona laughed even harder at that, "After you mentioned it! Which is when I noticed how nice your ass is, of course!" she laughed a bit again and turned to Jane with an expectant smile. "She has a nice ass, doesn't she?"

Jane chuckled, "She sure does. And she should! With all that running she forces me to participate in, she should have the nicest Maxinimus glumelus ever." She took a sip of her beer and glanced teasingly at Maura. Jane was quite liking this Arizona right now (even if she had displeased with her arrival earlier); she was talkative after a few beers and she had many stories to spill about Maura from medical school. It was turning out to be an okay evening, even if she couldn't lie on her couch and drink her own beer. And even if she had to share her Maura – uh, Maura. Just Maura.

Maura shook her head at her, sipping her glass of white wine, "Oh Jane, you know you need to exercise too. How else are you going to outrun the bad guys?" she innocently questioned with true wonder in her voice.

Flipping her hair above her shoulder so it wasn't in the way like that, Jane replied, "You're right. I do catch bad guys." She mumbled, before she turned to look at Arizona, "So Boston – Seattle? That much of a difference?"

"I've lived all over the place." Arizona replied, shrugging her shoulder and glancing softly at Maura, "Even in Arizona for a year when I was five, which wasn't fun – kids can be really mean, y'know?" she licked her lips, "But I've learned that a place is only as good as the people who are there, so… Seattle is my home; I love the people there with all of my heart. But Boston is pretty great, too." She shot her old best friend a sideways smile, "I've really missed you, Maura."

Maura smiled softly back, and Jane could easily see that these two women cared deeply for each other, "I've missed you too, Arizona."

Arizona continued, "And – with everything going on at home, this is turning out to be exactly what I needed. You're my therapy-time, so thank you for that."

Placing a hand gently on Arizona's arm, Maura rubbed it, and Jane could hardly tare her eyes away. There was a tenderness there she didn't see very often with Maura, as the other woman didn't have that many people with whom she was close with. Jane had almost only experienced it with herself and her own family, as strange as that sounded.

Just then Maura's phone started ringing, and she picked it up from the table next to her glass. "It's Cailin." She said and shot Jane a surprised look. "I better answer this. Will you two be okay here?"

Jane rolled her eyes. Maura seemed to believe that she was going to kill Arizona first chance she got. "I think we can manage." She sarcastically replied. Of course she wasn't going to kill her the second they were alone; that'd just raise too many questions. She had to plan it better.

Arizona giggled lowly, and Maura replied with a, "Good!" before she got off the couch and padded out of the room on her bare feet.

"She really can't detect sarcasm, can she?" Arizona asked lovingly as she glanced at Jane with shy eyes.

No, Maura was not very good at sarcasm, but then there were so many other things that she was amazing at. Jane shook her head, "Nah. She really can't." she replied and tugged her feet beneath herself on the couch, "You seem to catch it really well though?"

Arizona nodded her head. She was sitting in the chair across from Jane, and she looked thoughtful for a second. "Yes. Yes, my uh – Calliope speaks sarcasm. A lot. So I've become super good at understanding it." She took a long sip of her beer, before she added, "I miss her. Is that wrong?"

Jane knew that Maura had told her some of this the other day when she was informed that Arizona would be coming, but she could honestly say that she hadn't really heard everything. She'd been pretty busy at that moment, you know, catching a killer and stuff, so just about half of it had slipped into one ear and straight out of the other. "Wrong to miss your wife? Nah, I think that's pretty normal. And a good thing. But… what happened? I know Maura is pretty worried about you."

Pulling one of the legs of her pants up, Arizona started to explain, "It all comes down to the leg." She said, and Jane felt her eyes widen slightly when she was so abruptly exposed to the artificial leg, "That damn leg, Jane. I've really started to accept it. The fact that I'm even showing this to you now, shows just how far I've come. But… It ruined so much between me and Calliope."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Jane replied, and she honestly was. She couldn't help but feel reminded of her and Casey, and how he'd been a changed man after he got hurt during the war. She knew it wasn't quite the same thing, but there was something about swallowing your pride and letting other people see your weaknesses. Some people had a hard time with that, and Jane could tell that Arizona was one of those people; even with the woman she'd been with for many years she had troubles exposing herself like that – and accepting help.

Arizona let her pants fall down again and continued, "Yeah me too. And I couldn't pull myself together, and then I did, and – I thought that it was okay between us again – not great, but okay – and it seemed like Callie thought so, too. But apparently it wasn't okay at all."

Jane looked at the other woman, and it was easy to tell how much she hurt. The pain was evident in her eyes, and Jane hated that it had to be so hard. Arizona loved her wife, it oozed right out of her, but still things weren't working out. If love couldn't hold a marriage together, then what could? "My uh – my, my Casey, he's in the army. And uh, he was hurt down there, badly. He got home, and he didn't even tell me. For a long time, he was right here in the city, and I didn't know. It was a coincidence that Maura and I ran into him. But that was because he didn't want me to see him that way, and… things aren't, they're not the same between us."

The blonde woman seemed utterly surprised, "You're seeing a man?" she asked, and with wide eyes, she quickly added, "…a man named Casey?"

Nodding, Jane hummed in reply. She seemed a bit too surprised for her liking, but Jane wasn't going to pretend to understand what went on inside the heads of pretty blonde girls.

Arizona raised an eyebrow; her eyes were still wide as she continued, "Oh. I just thought that…" she trailed off. "Never mind." She softly finished and avoided Jane's eyes.

Her curiosity peaked, Jane wasn't going to let that one slide. "What?" she questioned, "What did you think?"

Smiling kindly at her, Arizona's eyes locked with hers, "Oh nothing, Jane. Sometimes I just see things that aren't there, so…" she brushed it off, and hurried onto another topic, "So you and Maura are pretty close, right?"

Not quite pleased with the fact that the other woman wasn't answering her questions, Jane really didn't want to let it slide. But she also didn't feel like she knew the blonde woman well enough to insist on anything, and Maura would kill her, if she did. So she decided to just be mature about it, no matter how much it annoyed her, "She's my best friend." She replied, and she knew that it was easy to tell – just by the tone of her voice – how much Maura meant to her.

"Your best friend?" Arizona questioned, and her eyes were glistening, "I'm happy to hear that. Maura's never been so good at making friends. As smart and incredible, and truly amazing, as she is, just as hard for her is it. I think maybe sometimes it's because she's too smart and focused." She sipped her beer and continued, "So you hang around a lot outside of work?"

"Oh yeah." Jane nodded and mirrored Arizona's actions by taking a long sip of her own beer, too. "We uh, we usually eat dinner together, 'cuz she cooks and I don't. And she tends to drag me along to boring stuff where I have to wear a dress and heels." She made a face, "Yuck. Oh, and she drags me to yoga. And Pilates. And all that other crap she likes to do." She couldn't hide the grin on her face, as she added, "But then I drag her to baseball, and she sucks at it." She laughed to herself as she tried to remember the last time Maura attempted to hit the ball with a bat – and just how outrageous her outfit had been, and how much she'd sucked ass at it.

Arizona was curious, it seemed, because she kept shooting questions Jane's way, "And you do these things for her? Even if you hate them?"

Shrugging, Jane had no idea what to say. She knew that it was odd how she would do everything for Maura, and other people had a hard time understanding it. She didn't quite understand it herself, the only explanation she could come up with was that she did it because she loved her. Maura was her best friend; she was the one person she could be truly herself with, flaws and all, and she loved her. She loved her up there with her mother, and Frankie and Tommy – and little TJ. It was as simple as that. She'd take a bullet for her, and she'd even wear tights and run with a camel toe for an entire marathon if that was what Maura wanted of her. She'd sure as hell put up a fight about it, but she'd do it anyway.

"I'm glad she has you." Arizona replied, and her eyes were sparkling oddly, but Jane took another sip of her beer and shrugged it off.

Maura entered the room again, and she stopped behind the couch and placed a hand on each of Jane's shoulders. "What are you talking about?" she questioned them curiously as she squeezed Jane's back.

Jane bent her head backwards and stared up at the other woman. "You."

"Are you telling lies about me?" Maura asked then, a tiny smile gracing her lips.

Arizona butted in, "Just finding some common ground." She replied, and Jane turned her eyes to meet hers, and they shared a short look. Continuing, the blonde added, "Anyways. I should probably find that guest bedroom of yours. The flight here really wore me out."

Maura shot her a questionable look, "Are you sure?"

"Oh yes." Arizona nodded, "I'm really tired. We should probably call it a night. You guys have to get up early tomorrow too anyway, don't you?" she curiously asked, raising an eyebrow. "And Jane – you have to get home, and it's already one o'clock."

Moving across the floor to give Arizona a hand with the luggage they'd just dropped next to her earlier when they arrived home, Maura answered, "Oh, Jane's going to stay the night. It's just much easier, and she has a drawer of her things in my room."

Pausing, Arizona looked confused, "She has a drawer of things here-?" she turned to Jane, "You have a drawer of things here?"

Jane brushed it off; she could see that the blonde woman was confused, and she was also beginning to see why she was confused. At least she thought she was beginning to see that. "I fall asleep on the couch a lot." She explained, as she grabbed the suitcase out of Maura's hand. "I'll show you the guest room, okay? Maura should probably get started on her bedtime routine." She made a face, "Takes at least a half an hour." She paused, "Every day."

"It does not!" Maura gasped and nudged Jane gently with her shoulder. She kissed Arizona on the cheek nonetheless and turned to leave, "Goodnight sweetie," she whispered, "and Jane, I'll see you in bed."

As she left the room, Arizona turned to look at Jane with a raised eyebrow. The look on her face said everything, and Jane huffed, "Oh stop it, we're close, okay? It's not weird!" she waited for the other woman to reply, but when she didn't, she repeated, "It's not weird!"

Arizona innocently questioned, "It's not?"

"No." Jane grumpily replied, before she turned on her heel and went towards the stairs. She could hear Arizona slowly follow her, and she had to admit that the other woman's presence was suddenly starting to annoy her a little bit more. What was up with all the questions and the raised eyebrows and the way she hinted something all the time!? Her and Maura were best friends, and neither of them had any serious man in their life, so they liked to lie in bed together and have sleepovers as Maura called it. There was nothing weird about that! …was there?

"Not weird at a-a-a-all." She heard Arizona sing behind her, and Jane clenched her jaw. She was back to disliking this person already.

X

It felt like Arizona was avoiding her. And no, Callie wasn't just being paranoid and dramatic, because it didn't just feel like Arizona was avoiding her, Arizona was avoiding her. And how did Callie know this? She knew this because Arizona hadn't been anywhere near the Attending lounge, or the cafeteria – or even the room where they held all of their board meetings. She was flat-out avoiding her, and it really pissed Callie off.

She was done being sad. She'd been sad – she'd cried to Addison the other day, and then she'd cried into her pillow some more when she got home, and it had really helped, it had given her something to think about. She hadn't been able to find Arizona since she made herself the promise to do so, and that was why she knew that the blonde woman was avoiding her. That was a lot of days of avoiding.

Callie didn't know what pissed her off more; the fact that Arizona had the audacity to avoid her, or the fact that she was being so blunt about it. She didn't have the right to avoid her. If anyone was supposed to avoid someone, Callie should avoid her. Arizona was the one who had cheated, she was the one who had had her head between some woman's legs, and Callie loathed her for it. She'd had her head between some woman's legs and then she'd had the nerve to be mad at Callie for that damn leg again. It always came right down to that damn leg!

Arizona was being really immature about this, and if she was going to leave Callie she might as well say it, because this was helping no one. Sofia deserved better, and quite frankly, so did their marriage.

So she'd been circling the paediatrics floor of the hospital every spare moment she had; she'd been circling it so many times she soon knew it better than her own apartment. She'd run into Alex at least a gazillion times, and he was looking at her funny every damn time. Arizona was avoiding her; that was the only explanation, she was hiding every time she got near, and if that wasn't the case, she'd left the surface of the planet.

She huffed and sat down behind the desk in the NICU; she was tired, so damn tired, and she hated that she had to go through this. She didn't think she deserved this. She was a good person, wasn't she? She was a kind person who saved lives for a living, and yet this was the hand she was dealt? She looked up when she heard someone tap the desk beside her head. She cringed when she saw Alex Karev standing there, looking completely ridiculous in his pink scrubs.

"I see you hovering, Torres." He mumbled as he stared down at the chart he was about to fill out.

She groaned, "Pink is not your colour."

He closed the chart and looked at her, "What are you doing here? There's absolutely no point in you being here."

Callie was annoyed with him; it had only been roughly thirty seconds, and already she was annoyed with him. She shot a glare his way, "You don't know that. I could be paged here. There could be tiny, tiny babies, with tiny, tiny broken bones that need fixing." She raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to question her.

Alex sighed and leaned closer, resting himself against the desk on his elbows, "But there's not. I'm on top of things at the moment, and there are no babies with broken bones. So – either you tell me the truth or you get out of here." He fell onto his feet again and glared at her, daring her to be honest with him.

She looked at him, letting her eyes search his face for just a few seconds, before she told him exactly what she wanted, "Arizona's avoiding me, and I'm tired of it. So I'll be waiting here until you find her, Karev." she paused, and straightened her back, trying to remember how Addison had told her to still walk tall, "You go find her, and you tell her that she needs to stop acting so childish and talk to me. Tell her I'm waiting here."

"You'll be waiting a long time then." He told her, and he sounded so indifferent, exactly like the jackass he always was on the façade. He checked the clock on his watch and stuck the chart underneath his arm.

Callie felt a lot of alarms go off inside her head at that point; maybe it was the way he said that, or the words he spoke, but it sounded a lot like he knew something that she didn't, and it sounded like there was reason for her to be worried. Oh God… What had Arizona done? She wasn't – she'd hadn't-? Callie was going to lose her shit if she had flown out to see Lauren. "What?" she questioned, and she was well aware of the fact that panic was starting to show in her voice, "What Karev? Why?"

Alex sighed, "Look, if you don't know, then maybe she doesn't want you to know."

Shooting out of the chair, she wasn't sure what came up in her; she got like this sometimes, so out of control, and her body would just act on its own accord. She couldn't stop herself, not when it was something – or someone – she cared about. It was instinctual, and natural, and her Latina fierceness was hard to control when shit happened. She was out of her chair and had her hands on his scrubs, pulling him halfway across the desk and into her face. "I swear to God Karev, this is my wife we're talking about, it's my family. I don't give a shit about the fact that you're still trying to get into her good graces, because it's my wife, and I'm not about to let go without a fight. Where. Is. She?"

Tearing himself out of her grip, he looked a bit shocked by her sudden outburst. "She went to Boston, okay?" he smoothed down his scrubs and spat at her, "You really need to control your temper, Torres. Damn, she went to Boston to visit some old friend. She spent all of her vacation days, and told me she cleared it with the rest of you."

Callie had no idea what to say to that. Arizona had gone to Boston? What the fuck was in Boston? (Thankfully not slutty, skanky craniofacial surgeons). She felt her face grow hot and stared angrily at him. "She didn't say a thing to me."

He did look sorry for her when he replied, she had to give him that, "All she said was that she needed time away and that she told you guys. Maybe she just told Derek or something."

She was trying really hard to hold back the tears again; she'd been so angry before, but now she was just hurt and tired once more. She couldn't believe that Arizona kept pulling things like these; she knew that she probably had a good reason to get away (the same reason that Callie herself just wanted to pick up Sofia en run to some deserted island), but it still wasn't fair – she couldn't just… she couldn't just go away like that and don't even tell her. They were married, they were parents, and she had a responsibility! "Arizona has friends in Boston?"

Alex shrugged, "I have no fucking idea, Torres." He said, and he took a step back, "Look, I know you guys are going through… whatever, but… She loves you, and maybe you just need to give her some time."

Drawing in a calming breath, Callie told herself to try to stay calm. This wasn't Alex's fault, he had nothing to do with the fact that Arizona had just packed up for Boston with no warning at all. He was just the messenger. But what was she going to do now? While she had been thinking about making up and talking it out, Arizona was running away from her. That wasn't what she had thought, and nothing was going to be fixed if Arizona stayed there in Boston with her friend. Who could very well be an old girlfriend, which was something that Callie really didn't want to think about. Because that'd suck. A lot.

When Arizona did something like this, it didn't even seem like she really wanted them to work things out. And while Callie wasn't certain if she did either, she couldn't deny that she missed Arizona with all of her heart, and if anything she really just needed to see her. She still hoped that she could find it in herself to forgive her for this – after all, she had said that she would forgive George when he did this to her, and Arizona deserved it so much more than him – but she wasn't sure how to. If she could, ever, forgive her, they would have to work on it. But what if Arizona didn't want to?

"She can't just run away from me." Callie whispered, not daring to meet Alex's eyes, "She can't, Alex. We're too important for that, don't you see?"

"Give her some time, Callie." He told her, and there was a certain look in his eyes, something that made her think that maybe she should listen to him, "She needs this. She needs the time, and then you can… Then you can fight for your relationship."

Callie nodded, and turned on her heel, walking away from him. Oh, she was going to fight alright. But she wasn't going to push it. If Arizona wanted to be with her, Arizona had to show her that. Because with all the running she had done lately… It definitely didn't feel like she did.

Third chapter done, and I hope you guys like it (: I'm trying to slowly build towards Rizzles, but it's going to be a process, because both of those two women are absolutely clueless! And with Calzona I have to fix something that is broken – so that's a process too.

Anyway, for right now, Callie is in Seattle since Arizona needs to realise a few things, but she'll be in Boston eventually. Next chapter will feature more Maura/Arizona-friendship and little Sofia will also make an appearance!

I want to thank you so much for your kind reviews and the support! It means the world to me.

By the way, I was so sad to hear about the passing of Lee Thompson Young! He was such a great asset to Rizzoli & Isles, and a wonderful actor. May he rest in peace!

Disclaimer; I don't own Grey's Anatomy or Rizzoli & Isles.