A/N: I am, as ever, supremely grateful to everybody who's reading this story - especially those who've been waiting around forever for a resolution! It'll happen eventually, I promise ;)
They've been friends for a while now. Eleven months, a week and three days. She knows these things. Tiny details have always been the ones that stuck in her heart; the curve of Callie's eyelashes, the slight pressure of her hand in Arizona's, the turquoise shade of lace underwear. All this she knows, and she suspects that Callie knows that she knows. She wonders whether this limbo will ever end.
She spends a lot of time at Mark's, and even more time with Callie. Rarely alone; girls' night has become a regular thing, and they're a package deal now: Addie'n'Callie'n'Teddy'n'Arizona. Mark called them the witches of Seattle Grace. Alex shakes his head whenever he sees them together, even in a group like that: he knows Arizona well enough to know what this is doing to her.
She talks to Timothy sometimes, too. He remembers Callie from back in the day: he drove them to prom in his beaten-up jeep, presented them with matching corsages and slipped Arizona a hotel key and a wink. He remembers what came afterwards, too: Arizona's stubbornness, the tears, her refusal to admit that maybe there was a better way. So he hears about Callie's reappearance with trepidation.
She applies her make-up with the same care she mends all wounds. She screwed up, she knows that. She was wrong. And if her penance is watching Callie flirt with everyone who buys her a drink (of whom there are many) – if that's what she has to do to atone for every tear she caused – then she'll do it.
Callie mumbled incoherently at the sound of the alarm, burrowing tighter into the covers and refusing to surface. It couldn't be morning, not already. Her head hurt from the wine, her feet hurt from the heels, her whole body hurt from… She sat bolt upright in bed. Shit.
"Your alarm's going off for a reason," an all-too-familiar voice called from the kitchen.
Callie rolled her eyes. "Thanks, mom," she backchatted, sliding out of bed and wincing as her feet hit the cold floor. Walking into the kitchen, she helped herself to the pile of pancakes on the sideboard before sitting at the kitchen table opposite Addison. "Why are you here?"
Addison looked up from the newspaper she was flicking through. Despite it being 6am, her hair was perfectly straight, her skirt-suit a classic cut. And the heels… Callie winced just looking at them, her feet throbbing. Addison raised an eyebrow. "You mean why am I here, or why am I here and not that delightful young man I just saw out?"
Narrowing her eyes, Callie took a sip of coffee. "Both. It's early, Addison!"
Assuming a patient facial expression, Addison tried her best not to roll her eyes. "You swapped shifts with Brister last night, so right now you're fifteen minutes away from being late."
The memories came flooding back to Callie. "Crap… I did." Katja Brister was the hospital's other promising ortho resident, and there was no love lost between them. But Teddy had found her in floods of tears in the bathroom at Joe's last night, and Callie hadn't even hesitated to offer to switch shifts – especially once she found out Katja's boyfriend had cheated on her.
Addison flashed her an 'I told you so' glance, before turning back to her newspaper. "So. Who was he?"
"Who?" Sophisticated nonchalance was hard to feign when trying to demolish a plate of pancakes faster than the speed of light, Callie reflected, noticing Addison's unconvinced face. "Oh. Him. He… We shared a taxi with him, after you and Teddy left last night."
Addison placed her newspaper on the table, staring at Callie sternly over the top of her glasses. "'We'?"
"Me and Arizona," Callie elaborated, downing her coffee. "And, well…" She shrugged. She knew she had a bit of a reputation around the hospital, but who didn't? She'd tried monogamy and had still come off badly, so really, she was past caring. So what if she slept with a lot of guys? It was nobody else's business, she reasoned.
Addison sighed. "When are you going to give that girl a break?" It was no secret that Addison wasn't Arizona's biggest fan, but not even she doubted Arizona's feelings for her best friend. And the amount of times Arizona had been confronted with Callie's millions of admirers…
Callie shook her head. "No. No, it is not about her," she stated adamantly, lying through her teeth. It was. It was always about Arizona, all the time – everything she did was about numbing her feelings for the blonde. But that wasn't something she was willing to admit – she could barely even admit it to herself. Who fell right back into a relationship with the first person to break their heart? She wouldn't – couldn't – be that stupid.
Shaking her head, Addison gazed at her friend. "Talk to her," she advised. Noticing the stubborn look on Callie's face, she sighed. "Callie, this isn't working. A different guy every night? This isn't you." She reached for her hand. "At some point, you're going to have to stop running and face it."
Callie pulled her hand away, scowling, and headed towards the bathroom. "You sound old!" She slammed the bathroom door behind her. "And you're no fun!"
Biting the inside of her lip, Addison crossed her arms and sighed.
"Blondie!"
Arizona turned from the nurses' station with a grin. "Mark! You're back!" She closed the charts she was carrying, tucking her biro back inside a pocket. Falling into step beside him, she asked eagerly, "So? How did it go?"
Mark grinned back, amused by her enthusiasm. "It was just like every other meeting," he shrugged. "I presented my research proposal, some other guys presented their far inferior research proposals…" He paused dramatically, enjoying the moment of suspense. "And it got accepted!"
Flinging her arms around Mark, Arizona congratulated her friend. "I never doubted you for a second," she beamed. "So when does it go ahead?"
"Soon," Mark replied, evidently pleased by his friend's reaction. "As soon as I get enough participants together, which won't be a problem. I can just use the old Sloan charm if needs be," he winked.
"That's amazing!" Arizona enthused, before noticing how far they'd walked already. "I have a consult," she frowned apologetically, stopping outside a patient's room. "You can tell me all about it at lunch?"
Mark nodded. "My shout. Then you can tell everybody you got wined and dined by a Laverne scholarship fund winner," he smirked.
Shaking her head, Arizona laughed. "It's only the hospital cafeteria, Mark, and I don't think they have any Michelin stars." Walking into the patient's room, she checked the name on the chart. "Lauren! Nice to meet you. I'm Dr Robbins. Hey, I really love your hair slides…"
"So how does a kid get a broken femur from falling in the playground?" Arizona frowned, her feet up on the table of the attendings' lounge. Her eyebrows furrowed, she didn't seem aware of the bag of kettle chips she was making her way through.
Callie shrugged, eyes sad. "They don't." The coffee she'd been so desperate for half an hour ago now sat forgotten on the table. It wasn't unheard of, but she had enough experience in ortho to know when something was wrong. Reading the unspoken question in Arizona's eyes, she said: "We have to ring social services."
Closing her eyes momentarily, Arizona leant back against the sofa. Crap. And the day had been going so well.
The door opened and Addison strode in, not at all surprised to see her friends. "That sign on the door says 'attendings' for a reason," she joked, pretending to stare pointedly at Callie and Arizona's pale blue scrubs. Sensing the atmosphere in the room, she frowned. Nudging Arizona's feet slightly to make room for her pile of charts, she sat down on the sofa. "What's wrong?"
Callie shook her head wearily. "A difficult case."
Arizona opened her eyes with a sigh, turning to look at Addison. "We have to ring protective services because a parent, a goddamned parent, couldn't be trusted to look after their own kid." It was far from the first time that Arizona had had to ring social services, but it never became normal, never stopped being shocking. The things people would do to one another… She shuddered, dropping her head back onto her knees.
Addison frowned sympathetically. "I'm sorry. That's rough." She took in Callie's tired appearance and Arizona's silent despair. "I'm going to get some doughnuts. I'll be right back."
As the door swung shut behind Addison, Arizona raised her head to meet Callie's eyes. "It's not fair," she stated quietly, eyes full of sorrow. She's just a kid.
Callie nodded. "I know. It never is."
"Arizona, this is my friend, Lydia," Mark smirked, introducing Arizona to a red-haired woman she'd never seen before. Arizona couldn't help noticing the curve of her waist, her smile, the lilt of her Irish accent. She smiled politely back, whilst firing death glares at Mark as he left them at the bar. I'm going to kill you.
Addison raised an eyebrow at Mark. "Lydia? Really?" She shook her head, taking a sip of her martini. "The day she's had, and now this? She's going to kill you."
Before Mark could reply, he was greeted by Derek. "Congratulations, Mark," he smiled, clapping him on the back. "It's great news." Ordering a round of drinks, he looked curiously at Addison. "Who's going to kill him? It'd be a shame, now that he's just starting to make it." He grinned mischievously at Mark.
"Arizona," Teddy smirked, leaning over Addison and waggling her eyebrows in Arizona's direction. "He thinks it's time she got back on the horse."
Meredith looked towards the bar, then incredulously back at Mark. "Are you kidding? This has disaster written all over it!"
Mark shrugged defensively. "Look, they're hitting it off!" They turned as one to the bar, where Lydia was laughing at something Arizona had said, her hand on Arizona's arm.
Teddy tilted her head sideways. "You know, it could work," she mused. "They are roughly the same height…"
Derek exchanged a glance with Alex, who shook his head. "Dude, this is an awful idea. She doesn't want anyone else."
Mark raised an eyebrow, gesturing towards the bar. "Just you wait."
"Where is Callie, anyway?" Meredith asked, taking a sip of her tequila.
Addison placed her wineglass back on the table. "Still working. Brister never showed, so she's on call. She said she'd try and get here later."
Choking on her wine, Teddy gestured in the direction of the bar.
Mark grinned appreciatively, congratulating himself as he watched Arizona lead the brunette out of the bar. "That was fast work."