Arizona had her bottom lip tugged in between her teeth, running her tongue over it lightly as she concentrated on the agenda in front of her. It was color coded in the way that she'd taught herself to be organized in high school.

Cheerleading in blue, which had it's two or three day a week practices, depending on whether or not they had a meet that week – that would be coming to an end in a month, after nationals. Which was going to be held in California, meaning that she would have to be on top of all of the work she had for that time. Going to California two weeks before finals and graduation wasn't ideal, but she still had some time before dealing with that.

Sorority meetings and matters were in pink – those were her least pressing obligation. Homework was in red, and that filtered in everywhere. But nothing came close to the time she dedicated for mock trial.

Which was ending, officially forever for her as this was her last year, next weekend. She reached up, twirling the pen in her fingers as she did so, to circle the date of the finals.

When her phone rang from inside of her bag, it made her jump, pulling her from her concentration. She had half a mind to ignore it, because of the fact that she was technically still in the meeting room for mock trial. But Professor Stark had left the room for a quick break before he was going to hand back their last proposals, and that was all they were still here for, anyway.

And, besides, it was Callie calling her. She could tell, because she might have set her ring tone to a different one than the generic ring tone that happened when everyone else called. It was a song from the musical, the one that Callie sang at the climax of the show that was utterly heartbreaking, and had moved her – and everyone else in the theatre – to tears.

She loved it, enough to put it on her phone, obviously.

A small smile made it's way onto her face as she reached into the pocket she'd slipped her phone into, and was already accepting the call before she turned slightly away from her classmates who were making small talk, "Hey, you."

Callie's voice was low in her ear, and sent a shiver right through her, "Hey, you," she echoed back, and for some reason, it made Arizona's heart feel… full, in a way. Then she cringed slightly and shook her head, because idioms like that were things she'd never thought before, and they just sounded silly.

Luckily, Callie was completely ignorant to her inner dialogue, and just continued, "I could practically hear how hard you were thinking all of the way from over here," she teased.

Which just made Arizona roll her eyes, despite the fact that a small smile was pulling at the corners of her lips, "Shut up."

"But seriously, how was your mock trial meeting?" Callie asked, and in the background, Arizona could hear the rustling of clothes. She didn't have to check the time to know that by now, Callie was at the theatre before her show.

One of the many good things that had come from the week before, staying with Callie over her spring break, was that she now knew what the brunette's everyday life was like. She knew that when she got out of mock trial meetings and out of cheerleading rehearsals, that Callie was just getting to the theatre for the night.

Which, when she let herself think about it, was basically a display of how the two of them lived on kind of opposite schedules. Her entire day with her classes and meetings happened before the brunette even went to the theatre for work. By the time Callie was out of work, Arizona was basically ready for bed.

Well, she would be ready if not for their phone calls. And at that time, she knew that Addison and Mark Sloan and other people they knew from the theatre, were going out for a few hours.

However, she didn't like to think about how they lived on these very different schedules very much, because in the five days that it had been since she'd been back to school, she'd experienced an acute missing sensation that she was unfamiliar with.

When she'd moved to college and away from her parents, she hadn't missed them. When Tim had… had everything happen between them, she had been sad and somewhat… messed up over it all, but she hadn't missed him.

However, when she was back here at school, she found that she missed Callie, especially after having spent that week with her.

Shaking her head slightly, she brought herself back to the phone call, clearing her throat, "It was good." And it had been. They had reviewed all of the facts they had for the upcoming finals – what other colleges had made it through to compete and different strategies, and that had lasted for a couple of hours. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw how the other five members had questioning eyes on her, and she quickly turned back, feeling herself flush.

She lowered her voice slightly, even though she knew it wouldn't make any difference, "I'm actually still here."

Callie's gasp was intended to be facetious, Arizona was positive, but she also knew that the brunette was legitimately surprised, "You're answering your phone during meetings now? Arizona Robbins: the rebel."

God, she did everything she could to keep the smile off of her face as she rolled her eyes, but it didn't help, "The actual meeting is over. We're just waiting to get our proposal papers back from Stark," and find out who is first chair for finals, she added internally, biting her cheek.

They'd had the three month course of mock trial so far, and she'd yet to reclaim her spot as first chair. Which was ridiculously grating, and she'd been sure to not make one mistake on her proposal for the finals.

Apparently, she didn't have to actually voice what she was waiting for, because Callie hummed lowly, "So you don't know if you're first chair or not?" and then in the background again, she could hear cases opening and closing, and she knew that now, Callie would be preparing to put on her stage makeup.

"No," and she tried to sound like she hadn't been driving herself crazy waiting to hear about it, but she knew that Callie knew better than that. Of course she did, because they'd spent so much time talking to each other, that the brunette could tell by that one word the truth.

It was kind of unsettling, still, to Arizona. Yet, also comforting. And the conflicting feelings were such a strange combination, but she didn't let herself dwell for too long on that, either.

In the few seconds of silence that followed, she could picture the way Callie was biting on her bottom lip in that way she did, before she said, "Mark really wanted me to go out with him to some bar tonight. I didn't really want to, but he seems upset, so…"

Realization dawned, and Arizona nodded slowly, before she cut the motion off because obviously Callie couldn't see her, "Oh. Well, that's okay. We don't have to talk tonight."

The words felt dry and bitter in her throat as they came out as her stomach weighed down in disappointment. It wasn't that she didn't want Callie to go out and have fun with her friends; she did. But it would also be the first night since they'd started… this, them, over break, that they wouldn't at least talk before going to sleep.

"I – I know we don't have to talk every night, or anything. I'm just, you know, I like talking to you before you go to sleep. I'd rather talk to you than go out with Mark –" Callie's words started coming faster and faster, and Arizona found herself inexplicably still charmed by the brunette's rambling.

Still, she cut her off, mindful to keep her voice low because of the curious teammates sitting behind her, "Callie, it's okay. You should go; have fun while you're out. We can talk tomorrow. Even later than usual," she added, factoring in the fact that it would be a Friday.

Callie agreed with a small hum and then sighed quietly, "I wish you didn't have a cheerleading meet this weekend," she confessed.

And Arizona rarely wished she had free weekends. Actually, before very recently, before Callie, she never wanted weekends with nothing to do; it was something she liked about having cheerleading, mock trial and the sorority – the odds of having a full weekend off very often was rare.

But over the last few days since this missing feeling had swooped in, she had found herself wishing that she had more free weekends. Because free weekends meant that there could possibly be time to visit Callie in the city.

She sighed herself, and admitted, "I kind of wish that, too." More than that, she kind of wished that their situations could have worked out so that she could have her cheerleading meet in Boston, and that somehow Callie could be there, too.

However, as things were…

A muffled knock came from Callie's end, and Arizona already guessed what it was before Callie sighed again, but this time it wasn't one of longing or disappointment – at least, that's what Arizona would have considered the brunette's previous sigh as – it was more of a genuine long-suffering sigh, "I have to go. Good luck, on your proposal."

"Thanks. You too, in the show," she added on quickly, before saying goodbye. And she kind of dreaded turning around to face her teammates' inquiring faces, but she did anyway, spinning slowly in her chair.

She kept her face impassive, and her movements were more rigid than they usually were as she closed her agenda again to slide back into her briefcase. The one that Callie had given her, she thought, and lightly ran her fingers over the soft leather of it before sliding it open.

Thankfully before any of them could comment on probably the most personal moment of her life that they'd ever witnessed – not that she thought any of them would, except for possibly Karev – Professor Stark walked back through the door was wordlessly handed back their proposals.

Her fingers were nearly twitching from anticipation, waiting for it to be handed back. But, then there was nothing as Stark pressed his fingertips into the round table that they were sitting at, "On your papers, you will find the necessary comments written to prepare you for finals next week, which will be taking place at Cornell."

Arizona, despite the pressing matter of the fact that her paper wasn't handed back, also looked up at the professor, with her eyebrows raising slightly higher in acknowledgement of their destination. Cornell – meaning they would be spending the weekend in New York, next week.

She mentally filed it away to tell Callie, and she slowly packed up the remainder of her items that had been taken out and were on the table for the meeting, as Stark cleared his throat and looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "Robbins, please stay behind to talk about your proposal."

The bit her lip, hard, to try not to let her sigh escape. She would have given nearly anything to just have had this last semester of mock trial go smoothly; to not have had to deal with Professor Stark taking over for Professor Hermann, who had arguably been one of the most amazing and inspiring professors she'd ever had.

Instead, this entire semester had been an unnecessary uphill battle for her in here. If she had gotten back this last proposal without any special commentary from Stark, it would have been shocking.

As soon as the door shut behind her classmates, she turned to look at him, eyebrow lifted in question, and he picked up her paper before sliding it to her from across the table. Though she could tell he'd written many comments on her teammates' work, her pages – and pages – of thought out, carefully outlined work remained free of any feedback.

She quickly flipped through page by page, eyebrows furrowing in confused irritation when it was becoming increasingly apparent that there was nothing here that showed he'd even cared about what she'd had to say.

Arizona bit back an annoyed sigh, and just looked up at him in question, "What did you want to discuss? It doesn't appear that I had anything interesting to say," she parroted his own words back to him, from a few weeks ago, when he'd criticized one of her proposals for not being "interesting enough."

He intertwined his fingers and leaned back in his chair, looking at her from over the bridge of his nose, "I apologize if you feel put out by the lack of comments on your paper; my mind has been fairly full lately. Bad memories," he tacked on, narrowing his eyes slightly.

Her shoulders snapped ramrod straight, as her fingers curled around the edges of her proposal, gripping so hard her knuckles turned white. Stark's vendetta against her this semester was, as she'd always suspected, entirely personal.

Arizona's teeth bit painfully into her cheek because she refused to get into this with her professor of all people. Clearing her throat, she purposefully flexed her hand and relaxed her grip, to slide the paper into her briefcase, "That must be awful for you."

And okay, maybe there was some venom in her words.

Which simply made Stark's eyes narrow even more at her, "It was. The matter I wanted to discuss with you, Robbins," she flinched at that; she detested the way he said her name. Like the entire reason he had learned it was because of what Tim had done last year, "Is that you wrote the best proposal, and I am begrudged to offer you first chair for next weekend." Before she could do or say anything, he leaned forward, and added on, "However, if you don't feel that you're up to the challenge, we can make another arrangement. Based on what I know of your history, we wouldn't want you to crack under pressure."

Her fists clenched, as she thought about the article that had been written about Tim in the newspaper, about his thievery and vandalism on campus and subsequent accident – they'd written something about him being a young man who had come from a good home and appeared to crack under societal pressures. It had been something about the rising epidemic of drugs.

And now her throat burned with words that wanted to come up. She somehow felt, now that the entire story and her feelings about what had happened last year and with Tim when she'd been with Callie, that it was all coming up easier now. That everything she'd kept locked up so tightly was now starting to come up more easily.

She wasn't entirely sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but the bad feeling was embedded in her stomach and the words were already coming out as she pushed herself up and crossed her arms, "Professor Stark, I'm sorry that my brother broke into your office. I'm sorry that he stole your laptop. I'm sorry that he stole your picture frame –"

Now he pushed himself up to stand across from her, "It was a gold plaited engraved frame, that I received from my deceased father," he interjected.

Which just made her toss her arms into the air, "I'm sorry about your gold plaited frame, then. I am genuinely sorry that you had to deal with that. But my brother paid for those crimes with his life, and you are far, far below me on the list of people he took advantage of in his life. But most of all? My brother is not me, and with all due respect, you have no clue what I'm actually capable of, because you have refused to give me a chance."

The words snapped from her throat, before she felt it constrict, and she refused to let her eyes fill with tears in front of this man. Who stared at her in shock, while the backs of her eyes burned roughly in the tears.

Tears because of the fact that she'd been raised with two domineering parents, who had made it clear that it was not her place to talk back to authority figures, and as a result, tears like this happened. But mostly, they were due to the topic at hand.

It was absolutely painful standing there in front of him like this, feeling like she'd just shown more of her cards and herself than she'd ever done or wished to do in front of a stranger, but she wouldn't back down or look away.

And after a few moment, it was Stark, who looked visibly shaken by her outburst and looked away, "Next weekend is your chance, then. I expect you to do your best."

"I'll be the best," she threw back at him, and turned on her heel, sliding her briefcase over her shoulder.

She was barely two feet out of the door before the hot tears – frustrated, angry, but somehow… relieving tears – rolled down her cheeks. Her hand had already fumbled around a bit to find her phone, because she would very much like to talk this out with Callie.

And she'd already dialed and went straight to voicemail before she called herself an idiot, because she'd just talked to Callie and she knew she was preparing for her show right now. She tried to mask her light sniffle as she cleared her throat and spoke quickly, lowly, "Hey, I'm sorry. I just… there was something that happened in mock trial, but I'll tell you about it tomorrow," she cleared her throat, and closed her eyes tightly, "Um. Okay. I hope your show is going well. Bye."

The path she took back to the sorority house wasn't her usual one – the most efficient one – but the roundabout route. One so she could meander so that when she arrived back at the house, her chest wouldn't feel so heavy with these unlocked feelings.

As she approached the front door, she could see her reflection in the spotlessly cleaned glass window. And she knew that despite the fact the fact that her tears had dissipated, her face, as always after she'd cried, betrayed her.

No wonder she had always been so hell bent against crying, she thought, rolling her eyes at herself, and gently pressing her fingers against the red, slightly swollen skin under her cheeks. With a deep breath, she pushed the door open, and hoped she could make it up to her room without running into anyone.

But she knew she was out of luck as soon as she stepped into the foyer. The stairs were located across of the open double doors of their meeting room, and in order for her to get up to her room, she would have to cross in front of them.

Their spring ball was going to be in a little less than a month now, and April was holding a meeting with their party committee to iron out the rest of the details. She squared her shoulders and was going to walk by, as smoothly as she could, but before she could head towards her room to make it look like she hadn't just been crying, April's voice called out to her, stopping her.

Without turning around, she tilted her head and pressed it against the wall, calling back, "Hey, I want to hear about what you've all been talking about in just a minute. I just have to run upstairs real quick."

But there were already footsteps walking towards her, and she straightened up, pushing herself off of the wall, and hoping that maybe her frustration and crying jag weren't as clear to anyone else as it was to her. It was Lucy – who was the leader of the party committee – that had come to draw her in.

Things between them in the last couple of months had completely blown over since their altercation in January, the other blonde greeted her with an excited smile, "We've planned out the decorations for…" she narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, scanning her eyes over Arizona's features.

She could feel herself flush uncomfortably as she unconsciously drew her shoulders up tighter. Lucy, the other girls – they were people she was supposed to be leading, the people she was supposed to be responsible for.

The people who had learned about her brother in the worst possible way. The people who had overheard her fight with Tim just before he'd died that night. God, it was the most difficult idea for her to take in, that they would see her like this. Weak, like this.

In a way that she, honestly, was only comfortable being like in front of Callie.

Her stomach was already clenching with being uncomfortably vulnerable like this, while her instincts were telling her to get away to the safe privacy of her own space to pull herself completely together.

But Lucy was frowning, "Did someone, like, hurt you?" and her concern was all over her face.

And as soon as the question was asked, Arizona could hear the other girls in the room start to come towards them, April being at the forefront. This was exactly something she would have loved to avoid, she thought, blushing red in embarrassment as more girls came out to see her.

Her best friend's hands were on her hips as she charged forward, her expression charged with concern as soon as she saw Arizona's face, "Are you okay?"

"Cap, who did it? Do we need to hunt someone down?" someone asked from the back, and she could recognize from the voice that it was Stephanie. And she could also hear that her words were actually sincerely asking that.

April's arm came around her waist, and Arizona met her inquisitive look, before she shook her head, "I – no. No one hurt me. I'm okay." Then she rolled her eyes at herself and pressed her fingertips against right under her eyes, where she knew the evidence of her tears was, "I am okay, just… I had a problem with my mock trial professor."

"Is he the asshole who talks about your brother?" everyone, including Arizona, froze as soon as Jo asked the question, and she could see the way Stephanie reached out to hit her not so gently on the arm. As for herself, every word she could have possibly had to respond with had disappeared.

No one, barring April, from the sorority had ever brought up Tim to her before.

The brunette rubbed the spot before apologetically looking at her, "I'm – I just mean, Alex tells me about your meetings sometimes. And if we have to all lodge a complaint against your professor, then we will."

And even though she knew half of them were waiting for her to snap at Jo for mentioning him, it felt kind of… freeing. Like the lead weight sitting in her stomach that had been lightened after telling Callie everything, was getting even lighter.

So she just shook her head, a laugh escaping her throat that felt like it was constricting again – this time not because of frustration or sadness or anger. But because these girls standing around her, they genuinely cared about her. And it made the slight laugh that escaped her throat a little watery, "No. You don't have to do that. But thank you," she added softly.

And she really meant it.

Her phone ringing out in her dark room jerked her from sleep, and, as it always did when she was woken by a phone call, her heart was hammering in her chest. Quickly, she sat up, as her mind was racing and thinking of any situation that was making someone call her on a weeknight, after midnight.

It could be a girl in the sorority or on her squad – several of the girls had gotten into jams before and had called her for a bail out. As her pushed the hair out of her face and the dredges of sleep that had finally clouded over started to clear, it registered to her mind that it was Callie calling.

Which only made her concern jump into a light panic. If something was wrong with Callie in the middle of the night in New York, how could she help her here?

Her thumb had barely hit the answer button before her phone was against her ear, "Callie? Are you okay?"

Callie's answer was hardly a real answer, because she was asking, "What? No, yeah. Are you okay?"

A confused frown pulled over her face and she lightly took the phone away from her ear to check the time – yeah, it was almost one thirty in the morning, "No, yeah as in yes, you're okay?" she double checked.

"Mhmm, I'm okay," and the brunette's voice seemed puzzled as to why Arizona would be asking that even before she asked, "Why do you think something's wrong with me?"

Blue eyes rolled as her heart finally settled in her chest and she lied back on her bed, blankets pooling at her waist, "Because you called me at one thirty in the morning," she pointed out.

"Oh. Yeah. Right," Callie drew the words out a little and Arizona could hear her trip over something.

The wheels were turning in her head already as she turned to lay on her side and she narrowed her eyes in the dark, amusement creeping in through her sleepiness, "Are you drunk?"

The way the brunette was silent for a few seconds said all she needed to know, before Callie let out a small chuckle, "Me? Drunk? No. No, I – I'm a little tipsy. Really."

Because none of her words were slurred, Arizona chose to believe her, finding herself grinning just a bit as she imagined Callie wandering around her little room "a little tipsy" and getting ready for bed, "So… why did you call, then?" she prompted when it was clear that she wasn't going to get the obvious answer.

Callie grunted in the way Arizona had come to associate with the sound she made as she stretched before getting into bed, before she murmured, "I just was calling because you called me and left me that voicemail earlier. And I tried texting you a few hours ago, but you weren't answering. I finally got home, and I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

The blonde's tongue ran against the roof of her mouth as she closed her eyes and nodded slightly, thinking of said voicemail, "Yeah. I actually am doing okay. I – Stark made some comments about Tim, and I kind of felt… badly."

At that, she was positive that she heard an actual growl come from the back of Callie's throat, which made blue eyes open in surprise, and appreciation, "What an asshole. But you're doing okay now? Do you want to talk about anything?"

Arizona bit her lip, and thought about the fact that she had talked about it all, already. With her sorority sisters, over dinner. And even though it had made her feel… kind of strange, and at first she hadn't found it easy to open up, it got better as the night had gone on. "I actually… I talked to my sisters about it." She turned so she was on her back again, running her hand up and down her stomach lightly, looking up at her dark ceiling.

She surprise was evident in Callie's tone, "Really? You spoke to the girls in your sorority about it, not just April?"

"Not just April," she confirmed, and took a deep breath in, "It was… nerve-wracking, kind of. But it felt good." A few seconds ticked by as she brought her hand up to rub at her eyes, her chest feeling all sorts of odd, warm feelings, and her voice was hardly more than a whisper when she spoke again, "I just. I never thought it could be like that. Opening up to them like that."

She'd never felt like it could be like that; knowing that so many people would be there and care, without a doubt.

Callie's voice was low and husky and sent a shiver through her as she pointed out, "You opened up to me."

And blonde hair moved against her pillow as she nodded, a small smile coming up, "I did. And I think… I think maybe you helped me be able to talk to them. Like, I've been feeling that maybe you helped unlock this thing inside of me that's been feeling so tightly closed," she confessed, and the words hung between them in silence for a few seconds. Which then made her cheeks flush, and she bit her lip, "That probably sounds stupid, but –"

Arizona could hear the sincerity in Callie's tone as she cut her off, "It's not stupid," she assured her. "It's not stupid at all, Arizona. And I love that you say that. I love that you called me when you were upset earlier, that you wanted to talk about it. To me," she added, which made blue eyes widen slightly.

Though, yes, she had called Callie and turned to her for support when she'd been upset, she hadn't even realized it had been her first instinct. And the thought of that, it was kind of disconcerting. How much had changed – in her – especially with Callie.

But the brunette was clearly unaware of her thoughts, as she continued, "But everything with your sorority sisters? Arizona, that has nothing to do with me. You have, and have always had, people all around you who love you. You just need to be open to accepting it," Callie told her quietly, seriously.

It made her breath catch in her throat, and her heart felt that amazingly warm feeling again. It was the same feeling she felt when she would see Callie's slow smile last week, when she came home from doing a show. The same feeling she felt when she woke up in her bed. The feeling she felt whenever Callie said any of these sweet things.

Unbidden, the question do you love me flashed across her mind, but she bit it back before it could make it to her tongue. Because it shocked her that she had even thought it. Arizona tried to clear her thoughts, but it remained embedded there, which made her heart skip a beat.

Did Callie love her? What would she say or what would she do if she did? Had they even… known each other long enough for that?

Did she love Callie?

Which was an even more terrifying thought, and made her heart seem to stop beating for a few moments altogether. Okay, she needed to stop thinking about this, she rationalized, and closed her eyes tightly, flipping onto her other side.

But this time, it seemed that Callie was somehow thinking the same thoughts, and her voice was hesitant in a way Arizona was unfamiliar with as she asked, "Have you ever been in love before?"

The question didn't stump her, though, and there was no hesitation at all as she closed her eyes, "No. Never… before."

"Not even close?" Callie asked, and Arizona could hear her moving around in her own bed. She loved that she could imagine just the way it looked like, Callie getting comfortable.

She lightly ran her finger along the edge of her blanket, and snuggled into her blankets. Into the position she would have been in if it was a week ago, and she could have been cuddled with the woman on the phone, "No. I – my relationships in the past never went that far." Because I never let them, she added on silently.

Arizona could practically hear the way Callie was biting on her amazingly plump bottom lip before she asked, "Have you had many? Relationships, that is. You don't have to answer," she rushed to add on, which made Arizona smile a bit.

"It's fine. And no. I'm – in high school, I dated sparingly, but not much. Partly because there weren't many out lesbians in my hometown of Nowhere, Indiana, and mostly because I was too focused on getting into an Ivy League school. Too busy with my commitments. I've had two actual girlfriends, here. But…" she thought back to them, weighing their respective relationships in her mind, before she sighed, "The first was Joanne. She was interesting, smart. We were together for a while my freshman and sophomore years." It was probably about a little less, she realized in retrospect. "And Colleen, the beginning of my junior year. She was fun." Colleen had been all about fun. Which was why that one had lasted for less than half a year.

Callie's hmm sounded interested before she asked, "And why didn't they last?"

Arizona playfully huffed out a breath, "What's with the interrogation, Torres?"

"I just want to know!" the brunette defended, and Arizona dared to guess that she sounded jealous. Which oddly made her feel satisfied, after her own brush with non-jealousy with Callie last week.

Still, she indulged, "I mean, you could probably guess why they didn't last," she said, quietly, rubbing the corner of her blanket between her fingertips softly, before sighing, "Because I couldn't open up to them… didn't want to, I suppose," she corrected, because after everything with Callie, it was clear that she did have the ability to open up like that with someone else. "And, well, they needed more time than I felt like I could rightfully give them, with everything else I had to do. It was never important to me to prioritize them over anything else. I would never… enjoy talking to them on the phone at almost two in the morning when I had classes the next day," she whispered, hoping that Callie would hear the clear admission in her voice.

They might be undefined right now, but this meant a lot to her.

And at Callie's quiet intake of breath and soft sigh, she was pretty certain that the brunette understood, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she confirmed.

"Wait, I honestly didn't think that you had class in the morning. Should I let you go?" the brunette asked, and the concern in her voice made Arizona smile softly.

She closed her eyes and sighed, "Mm, no. Not yet." A mischievous smile crossed her lips, "You have to tell me about your relationships now. Fair is fair, Callie."

The quiet puff of breath escaped full lips from the other end of the line, "I mean, there's not much to tell. I never dated in high school –"

Her eyebrows shot up on her forehead, "Not at all? Even for… a school dance or something?"

Callie's low, embarrassed chuckle was in her ear, "No. Definitely not even for a school dance," the brunette confirmed, "You sound surprised."

"I am!" she shook her head, and lowered her voice again, "I'm sorry. It's just…" she shook her head, thinking about everything she knew about Callie, "You're ridiculously beautiful, you're so talented. You're sweet, and smart. I just find it hard to believe."

The words left her feeling kind of dizzy, in the same way that kissing Callie sometimes left her, and the other woman's voice was low and surprised when she asked, "You really think all of that about me?"

Her eyebrows drew together lowly, "Of course," she assured her, before taking her bottom lip between her teeth, "I really do," she whispered, and it was the absolute truth. Callie was a one of a kind person that she hadn't realized she had needed until she'd had her in her life.

Callie let out a long, low breath, before she cleared her throat, "Well, no one in high school would have thought that. I was… uh, weird, to say the least. Weirder than now," she amended, and Arizona rolled her eyes, before Callie continued, "When I got to college, I dated this guy for about six months, but it just never felt right? I don't know. So that ended. And I dated a few more, never seriously, before I moved to New York. My first month here, I met a woman. She worked at the restaurant I worked in, and we had a… thing," Arizona could hear the hesitancy in her tone. "But, I was new here, and trying to find my footing. And she didn't, I don't know – I wasn't together enough at the time for her. It was better for both of us, I guess."

Arizona nodded as she took it in – she'd never known Callie had dated men before. But she was kind of fascinated about how they had both "dated" only two people before.

And she couldn't help but notice that Callie had left out something she'd made a point of asking Arizona about, so she cleared her throat for a moment before prompting, "Have you ever, you know, been in love?" and she felt like her nerves were fraying as the words left her quietly.

Callie sighed softly, and waited a few moments before answering, "No. Never… before."

Even though they were the same words she had used, the possibility and the question in them ran around her mind, her chest feeling that warm feeling again.

Please let me know any thoughts and feedback that you have! Every review that everyone has left so far means so much to me. And thank you so much for reading!