A/N: Few things. One - thank you for all of the love for the story. And for the alerts, reviews, and favorites. Two - I have decided to slow this fic up a bit. I have covered about ten years of plot in eight chapters. It has been fin doing this, but for the sake of where the story needs to go, I am going to slow it down only enough to tell the tale. Three - I started this on my board but it's not letting me update at the moment. So, for any Calzonaboard fans that may be reading this - it will be up there as soon as it lets me.

Lastly, I am sorry that they are not yet together, but please know that Calzona is endgame. It's angsty and I'm sorry, but I only started this story on a whim and I let it take me where it does.

Once again, thank you for the reviews, etc. It means a lot. :)

Arizona was heartbroken. Completely and utterly, without a doubt, heartbroken. In the days and nights that had followed New Years' Eve, she had cursed to herself that she had been a fool to believe that Callie would ever reciprocate any kinds of feelings that she had for her best friend. The smallest of hopes had kept Arizona hanging on to the possibility that their friendship would turn into something more. But now, those hopes were gone. Callie had slept with Mark. Callie was straight, not gay. And rule number one that Arizona had learned a long time ago was never to fall in love with your straight best friend. But she had.

Not that Arizona owned Callie or that her best friend wasn't free to do what she wanted, but this time it was different. When Callie was with Alex, she had been a stranger to the blonde. And when she married George, the two girls were just getting to know each other. Over the years though, Arizona had fallen in love. And this time, with Mark, it hurt. Bad.

She didn't know if it was because she had actually witnessed it - something that Arizona had longed for so long to have with Callie. Sex. Intimacy. Whatever. Or maybe it was because she had gone so much out of her way to spend the night with the brunette only to be rejected and ignored to go bang the hottie that was freshly single. In the end, it didn't matter what the reason was for the pain. Arizona felt it. Every day. Every night. All the time.

It was made evident in the late afternoon of January first that Callie had no clue as to what her roommate had seen earlier that morning. She had woken the blonde up with coffee and a smile and the two had breakfast for dinner as they recovered from their hangovers. Callie had done only what a best friend does and had spilled all the juicy details to Arizona about what the blonde already knew. Arizona had tried not to cringe or cry during the short-lived, although agonizing, recap of Callie's sexcapade with Mark and she had put on her best, dimpled smile, once again, for her friend.

And so it went, Arizona swallowed her feelings. Again. But this time, the blonde vowed to never, ever think of her roommate as anything other than her best pal. No pining, no hoping, no loving in secret. She was determined, more than ever, to put an end - in her mind - to something that would never be.

Arizona was weirdly thankful for Callie's long, hectic schedule at work. And to mirror it, only to keep her mind from wandering astray, the blonde worked every shift that her brother needed filled. Still, and it didn't help her heart in the slightest, when she would come home late to a random meal cooked by Callie left in the microwave with a note attached. Usually it read something simple that she could handle like,' Hope your day was good.' Other times she would find one that pulled a little too much at the stings of her heart like, 'I know this is your favorite and I made it with love.'

Arizona went on with her day-to-day life as did Callie. Weeks passed without much interaction between the two girls. It was mostly, of course, due to their schedules. Some nights, though, Arizona would peek across the street from the bar while closing up the bar to see the lights on their apartment on. On these nights, she would hang around at work extra late to help Derek with cleanup and to share a nightcap with her friend, who she confided in the most. She figured the less interaction she had with her roommate, the less she would have lie, to herself and to her best friend.

One night in early February, the blonde and her co-tender were polishing off a bottle of Scotch when Derek finally decided to bring up the Latina. In the weeks that they had worked together since the first of the year, Arizona hadn't mentioned the girl once.

"So Robbins, how was New Years'? You never really said how it went?"

The blonde fiddled with the glass in front of her and offered a half-smile to the man sitting next to her. "It was..." She didn't want to talk about it, even now, so she made her best attempt to offer a general answer. "...nice." Arizona smiled again and took another small sip of her drink.

It wasn't a lie, really. It had actually been nice, in the beginning. The dancing, the kiss, the look in Callie's eyes when Arizona had realized that the Latina finally had finally, sort-of, figured out Arizona's secret. Even the confidence that Arizona remembered having on her way to tell Callie how she felt was strangely...nice. It's just that everything that happened afterwards had been just the opposite. It had been horrible. It was still horrible.

Derek saw right through his friend and he knew she was lying. He had known from the start that something had happened and he had given Arizona some space and time to talk about it. Still, he knew her better than anyone did and she needed someone right now.

"No it wasn't." he said with a soft smile, opening a door for Arizona to begin talking.

"Derek, it's nothing." She got up from her barstool and retreated behind the bar to fetch the one-thirds full bottle of Scotch. After pouring the both of them another glass, she leaned on the bar with her elbows and looked at the man sitting across from her. Derek was a good friend and she saw the genuine look of worry in his eyes. Holding all of this inside of her hadn't done any good over the last month, so she decided that maybe a good drunken talk with Derek would help.

"You can talk to me, Robbins. You know that."

Arizona shifted her weight from one leg to the other and nodded as she brought the glass to her lips. "Callie slept with Mark that night."

"What?"

"Yeah." She brushed some loose hair from her face and began. "The club was great. We danced. And not like friendly dancing either, Derek. She was all over me and I was all over her."

Another sip.

"And before that, we kissed. You know at twelve. I mean, we sucked face with everyone, but our kiss was different. I thought maybe that I had been imagining things but then when we were dancing..." Her voice trailed off as she looked aimlessly into space, trying to recall the moment and the feelings that she had that night.

"When you were dancing?" Derek spoke up, breaking the blonde's attention from her inner thoughts.

"...We had a moment."

"A moment?"

Arizona fiddled with her glass before looking back up to Derek. "I'm pretty sure that Callie knows how I feel about her. She had this look of, I don't know, revelation maybe? Like she all of a sudden figured out how I felt."

"Well, what happened after that?"

Arizona shrugged. "We all drank more and then went back to the house. I was so drunk, Derek. All of us were. Towards the end of the night, I had mustered up enough courage to go talk to her and tell her everything." She hung her head down.

"I'm taking that it didn't go well?"

The blonde brought her eyes back to the ones in front of her. "I never got the chance to. When I went to find her in her room at the end of the night, I saw her and Mark having sex." Arizona quickly wiped fresh tears from her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Arizona." Derek managed softly.

"Yeah, I am too." She smiled sarcastically and huffed to herself. "But I appreciate everything you did for me that night so that I could go out. I don't think I ever thanked you. Sorry for that."

"No worries, Robbins. You deserved it." As he was pouring them another round, he looked up to his friend. "And I'm sorry things ended up the way they did. You'll get your chance, Arizona. You are amazing and beautiful and smart and everything that anyone would ever want. I hope you know that."

She shrugged but nodded. "Maybe."

They tidied up the small mess they had made on the bar, grabbed their jackets and one last beer to cap off the night. Arizona looked out of the window for some solace or some kind of understanding when she notice Callie's silohette in the apartment across the street. The Latina was bouncing around in the kitchen, probably making some sort of food that Arizona would love, knowing the blonde would be coming home soon from work.

She chugged the beer she had been holding to replace the butterflies in her stomach at the sight. "Derek, could I maybe crash at your pad tonight?"

He took both of their empty beer bottles and tossed them in the trash can by the front door. "Of course. Meredith is in bed, the couch okay?"

Arizona glanced over him to the lights on across the street. "It's perfect."

The two locked the door to the bar behind them and turned left for the ten-minute walk to Derek's place. The prescence of Arizona's apartment behind them burned holes into the blonde's heart the entire way.

It was March. Cold, windy, bitter. Callie had just stopped at the small cafe' across from the hospital to grab her usual morning cup of coffee. She huddled into her jacket and scarf as she walked the half-block, taking generous gulps of her drink along the way. The now-familiar front doors of Seattle Grace welcomed her kindly when she slid through.

She waved as she passed the gift shop, run by a woman she had known by the name of Hannah, an older woman in her sixties, who smiled back as she was hustling to ready the store for opening. And then there was the regular Monday thru Friday front desk receptionist named Carl, who always greeted the brunette with a kind nod of his head when she brushed past him every morning.

Callie had never worked long enough anywhere to get to know a familiar face. But one of the things she looked the most forward to when going to work were the people she had met, and liked, since being at the hospital. It had become a morning routine, saying hello to the field of faces that she didn't work with directly. All of them kind, all of them with a story of their own.

She had rounded the last hall to the left before her elevator and stopped at the coffee cart to pick up another pick me up. Callie glanced at her watch. 7:34 a.m. The Latina still hadn't gotten used to being such the morning person and it showed in her eyes every day. But this is why she loved Kim, the regular barista who slipped an extra shot of espresso into her cup every time she ordered. And it was no different this morning.

"$2.90. Anything else?"

Callie handed her a five and smiled. "Keep it, thanks."

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow, Dr. Torres."

The traffic in the hospital was busy, just as it was every morning around this time. Callie, with her fresh coffee in hand, decided to trek through the hectic halls to the south side of the building to the service elevators there.

She sipped her cup as she waited, rolling back and forth on the balls of her feet while watching the numbers above the silver door in front of her descend slowly. When the bell finally dinged, she noticed a familiar face exiting the elevator, pushing an empty stretcher from behind.

"Torres!"

Callie adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder as she smiled with a blush. "Hey Mark. How ya been?"

"Good, good. Busy as hell. You know."

The redness in the Latina's cheeks wasn't from being shy or lovesick for the man in front of her. In all honesty, Callie was embarrassed as the last time she had laid eyes on Mark's face was the night they had rolled around in the hay, drunkenly, in January. It had been fun, of course, but right now, it was just a little awkward. "That I do. Residency is kicking my ass."

"Well it was good seeing you, Callie. Hey, if you're free tonight, maybe we could grab a drink or two?"

The brunette thought about it for a moment and didn't the harm in it much. "Sure, Mark. Sounds like fun."

"Awesome. Maybe Joe's, say, eight-ish?"

She contemplated the choice of venue, but she hadn't seen much of her roommate lately and thought it would be an easy way to kill two birds with one stone. Though, she didn't consider seeing Arizona as a task or inconvenience, she just desperately missed the woman.

"I'll be there." Callie smiled a toothy grin and pushed past Mark and into the elevator that someone had been holding for her. She slid into the front and as the door closed, she stuck her fist out to prevent it from shutting, much to the annoyance of the other travelers in the lift. Callie snaked her head out to the right. "Hey Mark!"

The handsome man turned around and questioned with his eyes.

"Just as friends, okay?"

He smiled and nodded a sincere confirmation.

When the doors shut just inches above her face, Callie placed an aimless stare onto the metal surface in front of her. She wondered to herself why she felt need to draw the line for Mark in advising them their outing later would be strictly platonic.

When the doors opened on the second floor, she was thinking that she was just being shy and silly. Mark was handsome, together, driven, and pretty good in bed. He was definitely a decent catch in the dating pool. By floor number three, the Latina was chalking her decision up to being just too busy to have the time to date anyone, let alone someone else in the medical field. Her thoughts went wild for the two-minute trip to her destination. The sixth floor. And by the time she arrived, she had come to the conclusion that her impromptu disclosure to Mark had everything to do with the fact that the thought of dating, or even hooking up with him, just didn't feel right.

Callie was prompt, arriving at Joe's right before eight p.m. She immediately saw Mark and a couple of his friends surrounding a tall, round table in the front corner of the bar. She approached the table with a smile, quickly introducing herself to the other occupants of the table.

Arizona noticed the brunette immediately. For a moment, a split moment, she thought that Callie was there to see her. To say hi, to wonder how she had been doing. That thought was quickly stomped down when she saw the Latina's destination. A table in the front that was occupied by none other than the person, though not fair, that she despised most in life right now. Mark Sloane.

"Derek, I'm going to the back. Joe will be up in a few."

He didn't question his co-worker, for he had seen all he needed to understand her actions.

"Got ya a drink, Torres." Mark said after she had circled around and took a stool next to him. "Didn't know if you had to work tomorrow, so I went with a safe choice. Lite beer."

Callie appreciated the gesture, and even the thought that came along with it. She wondered, momentarily, if perhaps her being so quick to want Mark in her life as only a friend had been something that she would regret one day. She wasn't taking pity on the man as he didn't need it. He was successful, smart, sexy, and together. With all of those attributes, he could be with anyone he wanted. Just not her.

Midway though a decent joke that Mark's friend Carl had been telling, Callie realized, for the second time today, that she had made a choice earlier when she told Mark that she only wanted to hang out with him as friends. And any time you make a choice, it means that there was really nothing there to begin with. Well, maybe some hot, drunken sex. But that's it.

The table broke out in a small rumble of laughter after Carl had hit his punchline. Callie stood up from her stool, pressing her skirt down with her hands after doing so. "I'm getting another beer, can I get you guys a round?"

Mark and his friends only had a few moments to give her an apprehensive look before she spoke up. "I don't work tomorrow, you guys can get the next, okay?"

"Sounds good." Mark answered with a smile.

Callie turned from the group to make her way to the bar. If she were honest with herself, she would admit that one of the reasons she accepted the invitation to Mark's outing tonight was that she would, for the first time in weeks, she would perhaps be able to see Arizona. It was a Thursday night and she knew her best friend would be tending bar.

Callie scooted herself between two people that she recognized from her days of studying here to be regulars, friendly and always tipsy. The Latina waited a few minutes before Derek's attention finally rested on her. "Hey Torres, what'll it be?"

"Five Miller Lites, draft if you have it."

"No problem, gimme two. It's slammed in here."

A few minutes later, Derek was settling five pints on the wooden bar in front of Callie. She slipped her debit card to Derek. "Hey, is Arizona working tonight?"

Derek took a moment to re-notice Callie's friends in the front corner before replying. "She's in the back." Derek wanted to honestly speak his mind to Callie and tell her everything that she didn't know. He wanted to be crass, but truthful. He wanted to tell the woman in front of her everything that Arizona wouldn't and everything that callie didn't know. Still, he knew his friend and he knew that Arizona would not want him to divulge anything to Callie, not even a mean inflection that would cause the Latina to question his demeanor. "Joe is sick, so she is picking up his slack in the kitchen. Gotta feed the drunkies." He said with a crooked smirk before moving on to the next patron.

One round turned into two, which turned into several. And then they lost count. Callie and Mark, along with his friends, closed the bar, managing to rack up a hundred dollars or so worth of beer between them all. After paying their separate tabs, the group parted ways after exiting the front door with plans to meet up again in the near future.

Callie crossed the street carefully, minding the cars in street along her short trek to she and Arizona's flat across the street. She had seen the blonde slip out of the back just minutes earlier while she had been paying her tab so she knew her roomie was home. It had been weeks she had seen her best friend and their communication through texts just weren't enough for Callie anymore. She missed Arizona.

After shutting the apartment door softly behind her, Callie tossed her keys and jacket on the floor. She shuffled out of her shoes on the way to her bedroom, shifting her eyes around the apartment for Arizona along the way. In her room, while changing into pajama pants and a tee, her ears caught the faint sound of the shower running from the bathroom that connected her bedroom with Arizona's. The brunette smiled softly at the thought of knowing not only that the blonde was home, but that she would finally get to see her after what had seemed like forever.

Knowing that Arizona was probably dead-tired and only wanting to sleep, Callie exited her bedroom and stumbled the short trek down the hallway to Arizona's door. The water had cut off minutes ago and once she knew the blonde was out, she knocked on the sighlty-ajar door that turned into room with her contact.

"Hey," Callie muttered, catching Arizona off-guard as she was fumbling through the top drawer of her dresser, looking for something to replace the towel she was wrapped in.

"Oh my God, Callie," The blonde clutched her towel tight. "You scared the shit out of me."

The Latina giggled softly as she made her way into the room. "Sorry, I uh, I knew you were home, so I wanted to come say hi."

Arizona smiled. "Come on in," she said before returning her attention to garment hunting in search of sleepwear. Once satisfied with her picks, she disappeared into the bathroom to change. Less than a minute later, she returned, flicking off the light to the bathroom and shutting the door along the way.

Callie, who had been sitting on the bed, jumped up and enveloped the blonde in to a hug. "I miss you."

Arizona hugged her friend as tightly as she could. With everything else going on in her mind, she couldn't deny a simple hug from her best friend. She also couldn't find the will to say anything to her in return.

Callie pulled away from the embrace. "I was at the bar tonight, didn't see you but Derek said you were in the back."

"Yeah, Joe wasn't there tonight, so I had to cover for him in the back." Arizona lied. As much as she hated to do it, she couldn't tell Callie the truth. After all this time, she couldn't tell the brunette that she had seen her her tonight with Mark, that she got jealous and angry and had made an excuse not to have to deal with it. That she loved her.

"You've been working a lot lately."

"I have, it's been crazy there and Joe needs me." More lies. It's no more busy than it has ever been and Joe needs her only just as much as he ever did. But Arizona couldn't tell the brunette that she had been avoiding her to try to mend her own heart. To move on, to get over it.

Callie sat down on the bed and tipsily tossed off her slippers. She scooted herself, slowly but surely, up to the spare pillow that Arizona kept on her bed for decoration but never used. "Come snuggle." She said with sleepy eyes.

Arizona fought with her own mind, for the better part of two minutes, as to whether or not she should accept the cuddle session. The blonde struggled between her inner thoughts telling her that it was a bad idea and her heart that was calling for it. In the end, Arizona smiled weakly, though Callie could not see it, and climbed into her bed. She settled into the brunette's arms that wrapped her tightly, and almost protectively, from behind.

And like so many time before in the history of their friendship, Arizona fell asleep in the arms of her best friend. Only this time, her eyes were wet and her heart was breaking into pieces as she drifted off into a slumber that she could only ever find when around Callie.