A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry about the mishap this morning with the wrong post. But I fixed it and because of my mistake, I will post this tonight for you. This chapter will finally tie in the beginning of the first chapter with the rest of the story, so it's an important one.
I hope you all enjoy this,
xox hASHbrown
Chapter 9
It had been three weeks since Callie last saw Arizona Robbins. She dove right into her work and it helped her deal every day, even if for just a little while each day. She had eventually found herself able to cope and able to return to as best of a normal life as possible. However, the hurt still lingered. Creeping up on her whenever she was alone.
However tonight, there was no room for any feelings to linger. Tonight, when Callie walked into the station to start her shift, her and other officers were called into the board room for a debriefing. Their chief of police was a tall man with greying hair and a thick moustache. He called everyone into the room, and once everyone was situated comfortably he began.
"Alright everyone, settle down. We got an anonymous tip that tonight someone is going to try and execute an armed robbery down at the national bank. I am going to need as many officers on this case as possible. Torres, I'm putting you in charge on this case. Pick your guys and get ready. The tip says it could happen anywhere between ten and eleven tonight. That's it everyone, get to work." With that, the chief left the room and returned to his office.
Callie wasted no time and picked the other officers that she wanted on her team. Naturally, she picked Avery. It was a great opportunity for him to learn, plus she came to trust him deeply. "Okay, Avery you're my wing man on this one. Stick close unless I say so, and follow as I say. We clear on that one?" Callie asked looking at Avery with a stern expression.
"We're clear Officer Torres." Avery said half seriously as he gave Callie a salute. He could hear the other officers in the room chuckle at him, and blushed with embarrassment.
"Yeah, okay that's enough everyone…okay….Kent…..Marquez…Stevens…" Callie said, yelling out the names of the officers she wanted on her team, while making notes.
"Ugh…Callie, you sure you want me on your team?" Officer Stevens asked, with a nervous smile.
Callie looked up to a nervous looking blonde haired colleague that the voice had come from. "I called your name didn't I?" she said sarcastically.
"Yeah, you did…I just…well I just wasn't sure if…" Stevens started but was soon cut off by Callie.
"Stevens…..this has nothing to do with what you are referring to. So either get it together and join the team or I'll pick somebody else."
"No, I'm sorry. I'm in….I want on this case." Stevens responded while releasing a breathe that she didn't even realize she was holding.
Isabelle Stevens and Callie were never friends. They had tried to be, or more so Callie tried. But something was always off and it never worked out. They respected each other, but Callie had always felt somewhat intimidated by the strong bond between George and Izzie. Callie had had her suspicions that George, her husband at the time and Stevens were having an affair. Long story short, her suspicions turned out to be true, the fellow officer that George had cheated with was Izzie Stevens and Callie had never made any effort to discuss things with the woman. After all the hurt from the betrayal, Callie pushed forward and put everything behind her, but she never forgot.
Now a few years later, Callie respected Stevens as a smart and trustworthy officer. Not a trustworthy person but an officer.
Callie went on to pick the rest of her team and once everyone was picked she dismissed everyone until she could come up with a plan of action. This was a difficult situation at hand, and Callie knew it. Any criminal activity was potentially dangerous for police to interfere with, but that was just one of those things that came with the job; to serve and protect. An unspoken code; you serve your community to protect your community by putting yourself in harm's way. Even if that meant sacrificing your own life so that many others could live to see another day.
An hour later, Callie had come up with a course of action, and she had sent Avery to call the other officers back into the boardroom. One by one they slowly re-entered the room and huddled around the table in the centre of the room. Callie looked to everyone and then laid out the plan with a sketched out floor plan of the bank.
"Okay everyone, the best thing for us to do tonight is to have all possible entry and exit points covered off. That way we can confine them to the building. No matter what exit they try to take there will be officers waiting for them. The tip says that they will be heavily armed, so be prepared for it. Make sure you are well protected and covered. "Callie said pointing at every entry and exit.
Callie went on to delegate who was going to which exit. Everyone was listening intensely as Callie showed everyone the floor plan and pointed to where they all needed to be situated.
"Alright, now that everyone knows where they are stationed, the first thing that needs to happen when we get there is to block off the surrounding streets. We don't need pedestrians getting into the line of fire." Callie said as everyone was getting restless trying to get out of the room to get themselves ready for what they were about to do. Callie could hear a young officer shout out.
"Why would we need to worry about pedestrians in that area so late into the night? People will probably be safe and sound in their homes." A young red haired kid asked.
"Kid, you'd be surprised how many people wander at night in the downtown area, and wherever there are police lights flashing, there will be people lining up just to see the action. So when I tell you we are going to block off the roads…we're going to block off the roads. Now move out. Now! We don't have time to waste." Callie answered back. She motioned for Avery to follow her and they both headed out of the boardroom. Callie and Avery walked to their desks and started to put on their vests. All the while Callie was praying. Praying that her and her fellow officers weren't way in over their heads.
Meanwhile, Arizona was in the same mental state as Callie. Dive into work to forget the pain. Deep down, Arizona knew that what she had done didn't make any sense and was absolutely out of character for her, but sometimes you have feelings and you just can't ignore them no matter what the reason. For the first week, Arizona heard nothing other than Teddy trying to knock some sense into her and tell her that she was being stupid. Finally by the third week, Teddy had completely dropped the subject as she figured that it was a lost cause.
Tonight, Arizona was working the night shift at the hospital. It's incredibly rough on the body, but Arizona loved working during the night. The hospital was a different place at night than it was during the day.
"I need more suction, Dr. Grey." Arizona said while looking into the abdomen of one of her tiny human patients. Arizona was in surgeries back to back tonight. She was right in her element as it was keeping her mind from wondering to thoughts of Callie. She was dead focused on the patient at hand, removing the child's spleen.
"Okay, I think we are done here. Thank you everyone. You can finish up by yourself, right Dr Grey?" Arizona asked looking across the OR table to her assisting resident.
"Yes, Dr. Robbins." Lexie Grey said, nodding to Arizona.
"Okay, great. Come find me when you have her up in recovery." Arizona said while walking out of the OR to scrub out.
It was now ten o'clock at night, and Arizona was making her way to the cafeteria to grab something to eat to keep her energy up for the remainder of her shift. She stepped through the doors to the cafeteria and found Teddy sitting at a table, reading a magazine and sipping on a cup of coffee from the coffee cart. Arizona grabbed herself some coffee as well and a little something to eat and made her way to the table that Teddy was sitting at.
"What you reading?" Arizona asked as she sat down.
"Oh, hey! I'm just reading this magazine here." Teddy said showing Arizona the cover so that she could see.
"The National Enquirer? Really, Teddy? You know that everything that gets written in there is absolute crap. None of it is even somewhat true." Arizona said chuckling at the idea that a highly educated person as Teddy would be reading such garbage.
"There was nothing else to read, I sat down and here it was, so I picked it up and read it." Teddy answered nonchalantly as she continued to read the magazine.
Arizona just sat there, sipping on her coffee and laughing to herself at the sight of her friend reading such a ridiculous excuse for a magazine. She sat there for a moment longer, when she heard her pager go off. The page was from Lexie letting her know that her patient was up in recovery. Arizona said bye to Teddy and made her way up to see her patient.
She entered the room that her patient was sleeping in and found Lexie standing at the foot of the bed with her chart.
"How is she doing?" Arizona asked stepping next to Lexie to look at the little girl lying in the bed.
"She seems stable. The anaesthesia hasn't worn off yet though. She hasn't woken up yet." Lexie said as Arizona moved to the side of the bed and pulled on her stethoscope and listened to the girls chest.
"That's okay. Everyone is different. Either that or she was given a lot of anaesthesia. It will ware off and she'll be fine. She'll be in a lot of pain when she wakes up though. You can add a little bit of morphine to her drip to help manage the pain, but other than that, just watch the incision sight, make sure it doesn't get infected or anything." Arizona said smiling at the young resident. "Do you have any…"
Suddenly Arizona's pager was going off. She looked at it and saw that it was a 911 to the ER. "Sorry Dr. Grey, Emergency. If you have questions or concerns page me." And with that Arizona was running out of the room and heading down to the Emergency room to answer the page.
"Okay, what have we got?" Arizona said as she approached Cristina Yang who was at the desk just hanging up the phone.
"We have a fifteen year old female, victim of domestic abuse, about fifteen minutes out." Cristina answered.
"Okay, well then for now we just wait I guess." Arizona said, staring at her watch.
"For now we wait." Cristina repeated in confirmation. While they were waiting, Cristina was on and off the phone constantly, as it was a busy night for the ER at Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital.
Arizona was observing the activity in the ER when she heard a crash and a voice coming from outside.
"GET OUT OF THE CAR NOW!"
Arizona could see blue and red lights flashing outside and instantly knew who was outside, she immediately looked to Cristina who was busy arguing with the person on the other line of the phone. Cristina stopped when she heard the voice too, and looked to Arizona.
"Cristina, there are cops outside. Send all incoming traumas to Seattle Pres. Something serious is happening outside." Was all Arizona said before she made her way to the doors of the ER entrance to see what was going on.
When she walked outside into the chilly night, the sight before her was so incredibly intense that she froze.
Callie and the officers had made it to the bank downtown no problem, they all did as they were told and blocked off the streets and then took cover in preparation for the unpredictable. Adrenaline was running high in everyone there. Not knowing what was going to happen or what to expect made tensions run high. Everyone stood silently with their weapons at the ready in case they needed to discharge.
Every officer outside that building was watching their post like a hawk. Hands gripping their firearms so tight that their hands were turning white. But a feeling crept up on Callie. A feeling she couldn't really understand or explain. Something felt off. There was either something she was missing or something she hadn't anticipated. Sure enough the moment of truth was fast approaching as Callie saw two masked men dressed head to toe in black were exiting the bank from the east entrance. They were carrying two duffle bags, and were trying to make their way to their getaway car when they noticed they were surrounded by police.
Callie yelled out to the masked assailants. "Seattle Police! You are under arrest! Drop the bags and slowly walk away from them!"
The two men looked at each other, dropped their bags and swung from behind their backs, military issued firearms and immediately engaged fire on the officers.
All hell broke loose outside the bank as the situation turned into a bloody shootout. Officers one by one were getting shot, but the adrenaline was so high that even fallen officers never ceased fire. It didn't matter how many rounds of ammunition were shot at the two men, the bullets never seemed to penetrate their body. This was unlike anything Callie had ever seen.
The two men were still walking and still firing. They grabbed their bags off the ground while still continuing to fire round after round at the officers before them. They quickly got into their car and bolted out of the parking lot.
"Shit! Avery, get in the car. NOW!" Callie shouted. Both her and Avery jumped into their cruiser and took off. They were in hot pursuit, chasing the two men down as they were zipping down what is normally a very busy street.
"Dispatch this is 5-5 Tango. I'm in hot pursuit of the suspects involved in an armed robbery. Requesting EMS at the scene. We have officers who are down. Also requesting any available back up. We are currently driving up on Main, Northbound towards Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital." Callie said into her radio while keeping her eyes dead focused on the car she was chasing in front of her.
"10-4, 5-5 Tango. EMS and back up are on their way."
Callie followed the car all the way up to the hospital, when the car made an unexpected turn into the bay area just outside of the emergency room. Callie made a sharp turn to the right to follow the car, when she saw the suspects's car crash into the wall.
Callie stepped on the breaks and immediately put the car in park and hopped out
"GET OUT OF THE CAR, NOW!"
There was no motion coming from the car at first, and Callie took a chance at approaching the vehicle. "Avery, stay right where you are there, be ready if I need you." Callie said as she walked away from the cruiser and slowly approached the damaged car.
Suddenly one of the suspects came out of the car. He was no longer masked, and he had no military rifle in tow. All that was in his hands was a rather large double edge blade knife. There wasn't much distance between the two of them as the space was rather small due to the vehicle and the cruiser being there.
The tension was incredibly high. Both the man and Callie were staring straight into each others eyes, and there were no words spoken. The situation was so intense that you could cut the tension with a knife. For the first time, Callie was actually scared for her life. She heard the automatic doors to the ER open and from the corner of her eye she could see…she could see her.
"Oh my god!" Callie could hear the fear and panic from the woman standing outside the doors.
"Arizona get back inside…Now!" Callie said keeping her eyes fixed on the tall dark brown haired man standing stealthily in front of her.
"Calliope…." Arizona started softly with a petrified tone.
"Now, Arizona. Go!" Callie interrupted. Arizona immediately backed inside the emergency room entrance. But remained at the door and watched from behind the safety of the glass.
"Put the knife down, sir!" Callie yelled at the brown haired man, pulling her gun out of the holster of her belt.
"If you want me to put it down, you'll have to rip it out of my dead cold hands!" The man yelled into the dark drop off bay as he slowly started to make an approach towards Callie.
Callie slowly stepped backwards raising the gun in front of her to create distance between herself and the man inching closer to her. He inched closer and closer, and Callie kept backing up and backing up until they were out of Arizona's view.
Arizona's heart rate was intensifying with each and every passing second. The situation outside was beginning to look more and more hostile until Arizona could no longer see Callie's figure.
The muffled sounds outside could no longer be heard and a silence took over in the air. Arizona ran outside to see what was going on. What she saw in front of her was gruesome, violent and difficult for her to watch.
Callie had run out of space to back up and was now merely a couple of feet away from immediate danger. She decided to take a chance and immediately made a dash past the threat towards the door of the hospital. The man quickly turned on his feet and ran after her, swinging and slashing the knife in front of him.
Cries of pain could be heard as Callie continued to run while the knife was piercing through her vest and into the skin of her back. Arizona looked on in shock at the scene before her. Tears welling up in her eyes from all the horror that she was witnessing.
Callie was coming closer to Arizona when she saw that she wasn't alone outside. In the shadows she saw her comrade outside with her looking on. "Avery, Now!"
There was a loud crack, both the dark haired man and Callie fell to the ground and everything faded to black.
Callie remained unconscious from the fall, but the man got up. It had become clear to Avery now, why it didn't matter how many bullets his fellow officers tried to put into him. He was wearing neck to toe body armour and armour protecting his arms as well.
Arizona was standing at the door to the ER with her hands covering her mouth. The look of horror was evident in her eyes as she had just witnessed something that she never in a million years had imagined she would ever see. And what frightened her even more was the fact that, this crazy man still was alive. Alive and standing up without so much as a scratch.
The man grabbed the knife off of the ground and turned in Arizona's direction. He was so transfixed on Arizona, and the fact that she had seen everything that he didn't notice what appeared to be Callie's lifeless body begin to wake.
Callie looked to Avery and signalled for him to not fire. Even though she was in excruciating pain, Callie turned on to her back and saw that the man was inching closer towards Arizona. He was going to kill her. This man was going to kill the one true love of her life. Despite everything that happened between the two of them. She still was madly in love with her, and would do whatever it took to keep her safe.
The man's eyes were the eyes of a crazy person. Arizona couldn't hide her fear of dying at the hands of this man. She was shaking, and was cornered into the small space where the door to the hospital and the concrete wall outside meet. This was it, Arizona thought. This was the moment she was about to die.
"Stay away from her you son of a bitch."
The man turned around to see Callie lying on her back on the cold pavement with her firearm pointed right at him. "Look away, Arizona." Was all that Callie said.
In the flash of a second, there was a loud crack, and the man fell to the ground as he died instantly from a gunshot directly to the face, and just like that it was over.
It had taken all of Callie's energy and strength to do what she did, and once he hit the ground, her body had succumb to the trauma and she passed out again.
"Torres!" Avery yelled out as he ran to her body.
Arizona still had herself turned away, but quickly turned around when she heard Avery's voice.
The sight in front of her, was even more terrifying and unbearable than the entire ordeal that she had just faced. She quickly ran into the ER and yelled out to anyone who would listen.
" Quick! I need a gurney outside, NOW!" Was all that Arizona said when she ran back out to Callie's motionless body. Tears in her eyes, she stepped back as she watched Cristina, Lexie, Meredith, the chief of surgery and Mark run out with a gurney and picked up Callie's body.
They immediately ran into a trauma room and started to assess the situation. The room was full of doctors and nurses doing everything they could to save Callie's life. Her body had suffered from deep slash wounds to her back, and was in severe shock. Residence were administering fluids and examining her wounds.
Arizona stood outside of the trauma room watching as the woman that not only saved her life, but despite everything was still very much the love of her life was fighting for her life. Arizona just stood there not saying a word. She suddenly felt a set of arms wrap themselves around her, and hold her tight. Arizona turned around to see Teddy holding her, and instantly broke down into hysterical tears.
"She has to make it. She has to live." Arizona managed to say through her cries.
A/N: The bank robbery/shootout is based on true events. If you are curious, search up the North Hollywood Shootout.