A/N: I'm sorry that updates on this are so sporadic - life keeps getting in the way. I'm not going to give up on this story though so please just be patient :) as ever, thank you for all of your feedback and support, you're awesome (:

The chatter in the room died down as the bottle began to lose speed. Even Meredith stopped giggling, her face becoming remarkably solemn as she leaned forward, removing her arm from around Derek's shoulders as she leaned forward, elbows on her knees. Cristina, too, stared entranced at the bottle, watching it lose speed. She burst out into a cackle as her eyes followed the end of the still bottle up to the face of the person it was pointing at.

"Torres!" she cheered, raising her bottle of tequila to her lips. "Truth or dare?"

Meredith looked on eagerly. Derek tried to hide a smile as he ran his hand through his hair. He'd thought – hoped – he'd left the teenage party games behind, but now he was here, he was having difficulty pretending not to enjoy himself.

Callie chewed her lip. Truth or dare. Her eyes caught Arizona's across the circle and she tried to ignore the beat her heart missed as her dark eyes connected with electric blue.

"Dare," she decided, knocking back the rest of her drink. What harm could it do? Her life was already smashed to pieces.

TWO WEEKS EARLIER:

Arizona strode through the halls of the hospital, hands in her pockets. She didn't know where Mark was – she had no idea – but she needed somebody to talk to. This was crazy. Four weeks of no contact beyond the bare formalities, and she was losing her mind. She'd been hoping for friendship. More than friendship, if she was entirely honest, but friendship at a minimum. She could do that. She was a good friend. It was too much to have Callie here, in the same city, and not to be able to even share a coffee with her. The pain, the what-ifs… She could do that, as long as they were friends.

"Who does she think she is?" Arizona mumbled, eyebrows furrowed in indignation. She'd tried. She'd really, really tried. She'd put on a brave face, gone to work, toughed it out: she'd smiled brightly every time she'd seen Callie, she'd been nice as pie to George, who, by the way, was much better with kids than she'd expected or hoped – made him hard to hate. He was just a nice guy. So there was that. She'd gone to all the social occasions – even Derek's birthday, which Mark had warned her would be messy, and which, sure enough, left her hungover for a week and with a million bruises she couldn't explain – she'd made every effort to fit in at this hospital. But she had to admit to herself that she had no interest in being Callie's friend.

She knew nobody knew what to make of her. She was a mystery as far as Meredith and Cristina were concerned: she'd once heard Cristina mutter that she was "too perky not to be permanently high." Karev, on the other hand, seemed to know everything. Ever since he'd told her he was sorry about she and Callie, Arizona had wondered what his deal was. The time she'd spent with him at work had given her a better understanding of him: she knew he was often overlooked, usually underestimated. She knew he was a hard worker but that he wasn't often willing to share his feelings. And she'd heard the rumours about a patient he'd fallen for and then had to admit to a psych ward. Not that she really set much store by rumours usually, but it explained a lot.

Arizona wouldn't say she was friends with Alex, not exactly. But he was definitely her preferred resident. Sure, George was good with the kids, and Cristina knew all the theory almost as well as Lexie, with her photographic memory. But Alex had it all. A bit more experience and who knew where he'd be. Plus, he was always willing to tell her funny stories he'd overheard around the hospital. She knew he didn't get on with Mark, but she was learning that Mark's taste in friends was very much governed by his taste in women.

So when she bumped into Alex, she made a split-second decision. "Karev," she gave a half-smile, taking in his dishevelled appearance and the pile of charts in his arms. "Are you busy?"

Alex nodded in acknowledgment. He knew he could do much worse for an attending than Arizona Robbins. She was the best. She was strict but he could tell she actually gave a damn – about the patients, about the residents, about teaching them to be the best that they could be. He'd wondered idly what was going on with her and Torres ever since she'd got here. Callie was a little off-the-wall, everybody knew that: first to the party, last to leave, most likely to dance on the table and leave with a complete stranger. But he'd never seen anything as weird as the look on her face when Arizona had first appeared at the hospital. And he'd seen a lot of weird things.

"Sure," he nodded, placing the charts back in the trolley. "I was just catching up on these. You wanna get a coffee?"

Arizona nodded gratefully. "It's on me."

She wrapped her hands around the cup and stared over the edge of the walkway railings, watching the people coming and going. Miracle cures, bad diagnoses, death or life… It all happened in this hospital. People left this place a different person to who they were when they arrived.

Alex took a sip of his coffee, eyed her warily over the rim. What had seemed like a good idea at first was becoming rapidly less appealing with every second they passed in silence. "This isn't about me, right? Or the Jenkins kid? Because I swear, I did not –"

She looked up, shook her head adamantly. "Karev. No. Everyone knows Matthew Jenkins has a mouth on him. Nobody actually thinks you told him he was going to die," she gave a wry smile. Kids like Matthew, she'd met them before: so convinced they were going to die that they saw monsters everywhere, in everyone. "This… This is…" Arizona wondered how to bring it up subtly. She supposed there was really no way. "Callie," she stated, before she had time to think. "What do you… What's going on with Callie?" She knew Alex lived with Meredith, who lived with George. She knew he'd at least have some idea what was going on.

Alex almost smirked, but the look on Arizona's face was too wistful. "Torres is a mess," he shrugged, taking another sip of his coffee. "She has been ever since I've been here."

Arizona swallowed hard. "A mess?"

"Parties a lot. Drinks a lot. Sleeps with a lot of guys." Alex shrugged. "She doesn't really have a lot of friends around here."

"Addison?" Arizona ventured hesitantly.

"She and Montgomery are like those witches out of Macbeth." He reconsidered. "Wait, there were three of them. Whatever. They're inseparable. Callie, she… She goes to all the parties, she gets on with everyone, but… She doesn't have a lot of friends. And Addison… Who knows how she spends her time, but the two of them? Couldn't split them with a carving knife." Alex shrugged. Truth was, he'd be much the same as Callie if he hadn't met Meredith. But Meredith and Callie had never really hit it off.

Arizona closed her eyes, took a deep breath. The Callie she'd known had been a loose cannon, sure, but non-stop parties and drinking? "But she's with George," she forced out.

"O'Malley's an idiot," Alex rolled his eyes scornfully. "He wants Izzie. Callie is his… I don't know, his stopgap."

Arizona didn't miss the edge of pain in his voice. "So they're not serious?" she ventured tentatively, hopefully.

Alex shrugged. "They're married. But all I know is Callie's not the one he thinks about at night."

Arizona wished she could say the same for herself.

Two days later and the news hit Arizona as soon as she walked through the hospital doors, arm in arm with Mark.

"I heard he cheated on her in their very own bed –"

"Right here in the hospital – Torres walked into the on-call room and caught them at it-"

"Apparently O'Malley and Stevens have run off together. Her dad's in the Mafia, you know –"

Arizona looked at Mark, wide-eyed. "What –"

Mark shrugged. "Gossip in this place… There's no way of knowing whether it's true or not."

But Arizona wasn't convinced. And when she found Alex on her service instead of George, he only shrugged as if to say "I told you so."

Callie rubbed her bleary eyes, rolled onto her side and stared at the alarm clock on the bedside table. Three am. She was pretty sure she hadn't slept at all in the last 48 hours. She tried to sit up, winced. Maybe the last vodka hadn't been such a great idea.

Two days. That was long enough to be over it, right? It wasn't like they were married. She burst out laughing. Oh, wait. Wedding in Vegas. She could tick that one off the bucket list, along with ensuing divorce less than a year later. Mistake, huge mistake. Like most of the things in her life thus far.

Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to sit up and open the curtains. The streetlamp outside the hotel was broken, but there was nobody on the street anyway. She shook her head, stopping abruptly when it hurt even more. She'd hoped her days of drowning her sorrows alone were over, yet here she was, classy as ever.

She wondered what they were saying at work, whether everybody knew now how she'd been humiliated by a husband who thought sanctity of marriage was optional. She'd known it was going to happen, she'd seen it coming, but weirdly it hadn't made it hurt any less.

At least now it was over, right? She could move on. Get over it. Go back to work and watch Arizona pretending to be happy with her sad eyes and fake laugh.

She sank back onto the bed, reached blindly for the bottle of vodka. Maybe tomorrow.

"Come on, Arizona! It'll be fun. There'll be old-school party games, bad dancing to awful eighties music – how can you resist?" Derek smirked, eyes twinkling.

Arizona rolled her eyes. He was just as enthusiastic about this night as she was, she could tell. Apparently so could Meredith, who turned to narrow her eyes at him. "It will be fun," she smiled sweetly at Arizona. "Come on. This last week has been an absolute bitch. We could all do with a night to go crazy."

"Who's going?"

"Well…" Meredith counted on her fingers. "Cristina –"

"Obviously," Derek mouthed behind her back.

"- Mark, Addison –"

"Oh, well if Addison's going to be there, maybe I shouldn't-" Arizona saw her out and tried to take it.

"Nuh-uh," Meredith shook her head. Derek mimicked her solemnly. "No. If Addison and I can get along, you two can get along, too. Just because she likes the babies and you like the kids, doesn't mean you have to hate one another."

"That… is really not it," Arizona mumbled weakly. Derek drew his finger across his throat, sensing she was losing the battle.

"So you'll be there. Great!" Meredith grinned. "Bring Alex, you two finish at the same time tonight, right?"

Derek laughed at her as he was pulled off in Meredith's wake, leaving her standing in the cafeteria confused, lost and wondering how the hell she'd just got herself roped into this.

Alex rolled his eyes as he waited outside the bathroom for Arizona. God only knew what the chicks did in there that took so long. He'd changed his shirt, splashed some water on his face, and here was Arizona half an hour after their shift had finished, still locked in the bathroom.

She burst out of the door a split-second later, hair around her face and glittery eyeshadow making her eyes stand out even more. "I'm ready," she grinned, cheeks dimpling.

"Whatever," he couldn't help smiling back. Taking her bag, he gestured to the doors. "We'd probably better get going. Half of them are probably already unconscious by now."

"Wait," she put a hand on his arm. "You're sure about this?"

Alex shrugged, not even pretending not to know what she meant. "None of them are going to be there. Torres hasn't left her hotel room in a fortnight, O'Malley's gone underground and Izzie's out of state visiting relatives. Said she couldn't take the way people were looking at her."

Arizona took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this."

"You invited Torres?!" Cristina's voice could be heard over the thumping music as she and Meredith attempted to have a hushed discussion.

"Yes!" Meredith cried. "Look, I know we don't really know her" – Cristina could be seen to snort at this – "but she's not in the wrong, here. And she's the one being treated like a pariah!"

Cristina rolled her eyes. "You want her lying on your bathroom in a drunken stupor all night?"

"I would rather her here where I can see her than hidden away in a hotel room on her own!" Meredith answered firmly.

Cristina shook her head. "It's your party."

Callie breathed in deeply. She'd been surprised to get the text off Meredith. She'd always thought the younger woman disliked her, but maybe it was just that they didn't have much in common. Either way, Meredith and Addison were the only people who'd bothered contacting her since it'd happened. And maybe a night outside of this hotel room would be good for her. She'd have to do it eventually, after all.

She'd made it to the garden of the frat house before she realised she couldn't go in alone. She could hear the music, see the spinning lights, make out the voices, but she couldn't bring herself to open the front door. What had she been thinking? All the people, all the memories in this place… She was sat on a bench in the garden when she heard voices.

"I am not –" Derek almost fell out of the door, pulling a blonde woman she knew all too well behind him.

"You really are," Arizona chastised. "Awful dancer."

"Those moves were cool once upon a time," Derek grinned at her.

Arizona looked unconvinced. "Mhmm."

They both stopped when they saw a familiar figure. Arizona's heart began to race. Derek was the first to break the silence. "Torres," he said softly, pulling Arizona with him as he walked towards her. "Meredith told me what happened… I'm glad you could make it."

Callie gave him a small smile. From somebody else they might have sounded trite, but Derek's eyes were full of such sincerity that it just sounded genuine. "Thanks," she managed, her eyes moving on to Arizona.

"Are you okay?" Arizona could have kicked herself for asking such a stupid question. Nobody had seen Callie in two weeks. She'd been battling with herself over whether to call, whether to text. She'd decided against it. Addison seemed to have it under control: she was never home when Arizona was at Mark's. Mark said he'd barely seen her. Arizona took it as a sign that Callie didn't need her butting in, but one look at the woman in front of her and she wondered what she'd been thinking.

Callie gave a small laugh. "I've been worse," she smiled wryly.

Derek reached out his hand. "Wanna come and join the party? There might even be spin the bottle, if you're lucky."

Callie couldn't help laughing at his mock enthusiasm. "Sure," she smiled, standing up and taking Derek's other hand.

Callie chewed her lip. Truth or dare. Her eyes caught Arizona's across the table and she tried to ignore the beat her heart missed as her dark eyes connected with electric blue.

"Dare," she decided, knocking back the rest of her drink. What harm could it do. Her life was already smashed to pieces.

Cristina bounced up and down on her seat excitedly. "I got it, I got it!"

Alex frowned. "Hey, it was my turn to pick the dare this time!"

Cristina waved a hand dismissively. "Whatever, Evil Spawn. You get the next go."

Meredith raised her eyebrows at the pair of them, before making eye contact with Callie and laughing. "Just tell her the dare, already!" she suggested.

"I dare you –" Cristina paused dramatically, "to kiss Blondie!"

Arizona's heart stopped beating, she could swear it. Mark tensed by her side. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Alex turn his gaze towards her from his vantage point on the floor, but her eyes were locked on Callie's.

Callie could have laughed. Life was throwing her such curve balls lately that really, in the topsy-turvy reality that her life had become, this actually just kind of made sense. She felt Addison draw in a breath beside her.

Meredith looked at Cristina before bursting into laughter again. "What?!"

"No, it's perfect!" Cristina insisted. "Perky is gay as the day is long, Torres is as heartbroken as Perky is gay, they'll kiss and fall madly in love and have ten beautiful kids."

Meredith shook her head, baffled, wrapping an arm round Derek again. "What've you been drinking?"

Mark and Alex looked on worriedly as Callie wordlessly reached her hand across the circle to Arizona. She gulped, reminded herself to breathe. She felt tingles like electric shocks as their skin touched, let herself be pulled towards Callie. She could see the amber flecks in Callie's eyes, watched her bite her lip as she leaned in towards her, closed her own eyes as Callie's lips met hers and her hand cupped her cheek. Memories exploded in her mind; first kiss first date first I love you first argument first time waking up together, and then Callie's tongue was in her mouth and her own hands were tangled in Callie's hair and she couldn't feel see breathe anything except Callie and the hands that were pulling her closer.