Title: People Talk, Alot 4/?
Author: Lauren Michelle
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG, for this one at least
Summary: Before the kiss at Joe's and how Arizona got ahold of all of this, "talk." Also, shedding some light upon Arizona's past and Callie's present. And now we're approaching more than background story ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the show, or anything related to the show. I don't make any money, from this or otherwise, and simply am writing for my enjoyment.
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No apartment tonight, Arizona grinned at the thought, at least not sober anyway. The plan was to go to Joe's, drink, and maybe have a chance run-in with a certain Doctor. A part of her almost felt a little guilty, going somewhere knowing that Calliope might be there. The thought of the name prompted a bigger grin to cross her expression. The name had reminded her of something, when she heard it from Lexie. She felt a little like a weird, googling it from her home, before work. It was the name of the oldest of the nine muses in greek mythology, meaning "beautiful voice." The blonde had always had a soft spot for greek myth and the name definitely attracted her. But more importantly, she had learned of Erica Hahn today.
It had been after Matthew's final surgery, which had gone as smoothly as expected. She had stepped out into the hall and been caught off guard with the sight of a Dr. Torres standing only feet away. She was absorbed in, what looked like, friendly banter with Cristina Yang. They had only met briefly in conjunction with her meeting Izzy but the impression of Yang had been a good one.
But back to the being caught off guard. Arizona had paused, mid-stride, and allowed her gaze to fix upon the brunette, she quickly went back and forth between walking over and discovering to say, but what if she couldn't think of anything? What if she opened her mouth and nothing came out, what kind of a first impression would that make? It doesn't exactly scream, "Date me!" Or anything that might lead to remote thoughts of sexy or mysterious, thought it may scream a "creepy" or two. Needless to say, with all of this inner dialog, not much moving was being done.
Meanwhile, in a conversation not so far away.
"So you won't go out for drinks tonight?"
"It depends, are you finished moping yet?" Yang retorted as she looked over a chart.
"Moping? I'm not moping!" the brunette proclaimed as she took a sip of coffee and put on a wide smile. "No moping here. Only happy, happy all the time, happier with drinks though. Drinks and company of course." the obvious fake smile broadened, accompanied with an awkward stare.
"One, I doubt the happy. Two, I doubt that your inebriation would improve this mythical happy. And three," motioning towards Callie's expression, "that's just creepy." Cristina quickly shifted her line of sight back to the chart and then slightly upward to a stationary person in her periph. Her reaction remained strictly internal as she recognized a Dr. Arizona Robbins with her eyes plastered to her roommate.
"Fine," Callie said reluctantly, as she took another sip of coffee. "don't believe me, but you're missing out Yang."
I'll bet." she retorted, as she set down her chart and noticed that the blonde had still yet to move her feet, or her eyes. "Just try not to stumble in too loudly." Great, she thought, another blonde surgeon, perfect.
"I'll break the door, just for you." the brunette retorted as she turned and and exited.
"Looking forward to it, I'm sure." Cristina lowered the chart to her side, shifted her eyes between the two women, and made strides past the Peds statue. "Let's hope you're nicer than Hahn."
Arizona could only muster a confused grin as she hurriedly composed herself after Dr. Yang passed by.
Back in blonde and perky land. "What the hell's a Hahn?" with that and a perturbed/puzzled expression she was off to solve a mystery.
Lexie walked steadily down the hallway lost in a should I stay or should I go mind track. The somewhat secret was ebbing at her. She had found Arizona to talk to, but she didn't really know Mark or his nature and the intern was doing her best not to let loose another outburst on Cal-
Before she realized what was happening, a hand pulled her into an on call room. Expecting to see her plastic surgeon play boy, she was shocked to find a blonde Peds surgeon who looked a mess.
"Hahn."
"Wha?"
"Hahn, it's not place, it's not a thing, it's not even a word in a dictionary. What is a "Hahn?"
The brunette had gone from startled to increasingly confused at the stress that was put on the familiar name of surgeons past. "Hahn, is a noun, and a she. She's, she's gone."
"Gone?" The blonde questioned and paused with a confused look.
"Gone, parking lot, no return. Gone as in, no longer here- why am I being questioned? Did- did you pull me in here?" Lexie looked back at the door with "over here" and "over there" hand gestures trying to recount how she came to be in the on call room.
"Okay, the not in Seattle Grace has been established and I'd like to think of the "pulling" as more of a clever covert pan in action, but Dr. Yang just walked past with her "I hope your nicer than Haun." statement," the blonde said with her best Yang impression. "and walked off! I don't know what a Haun is, or, I suppose, who "Hahn" is. I've tried not thinking about it but-" Arizona stopped briefly seeing her friends continued gesturing. "Lexie!"
"Huh?" the brunette looked up.
"I'm sorry it's just, I don't have a lot to go on here. Not that I should be going on with anything, I don't even know her. I just feel this has really gotten out of hand," her speech quickened with the splintering dialog, almost to an aside performance. "I don't even know if she dates women yet?" she froze with the thought, wondering how she could have even gotten this far without really knowing.
"You didn't- you didn't know?" Lexie stammered. "She dated Haun, or they slept together- Mark wasn't really that specific, surprisingly. But regardless, yes, she and women- yes."
A gin spread grandly across the blondes face. "Really?" her voice picked up a register, "Cause that's, that's just- super!" the enthusiasm was undeniable.
"Uh huh," the intern nodded hesitantly, she had seen Arizona border this sort of excitement but the crossing of the "super" line, she decided, was oddly satisfying and- cute. Yes, this is a good thing, she thought, her "secret boyfriend's," the term took a moment to sting, friend could use a little happiness and she was glad to aide in it. "You know, if it helps,"
The blonde directed her full attention.
"She's going out to Joe's tonight, or that was the plan." she contemplated what more should be shared. "And I think, she could really enjoy someone right now, someone like you." she finished with a small smile.
Arizona was in her own little fog of happiness at that point, gay, Calliope, happiness.
"Well I'm gonna-" Lexie motioned towards the door. "you going to be okay?" the brunette looked over, almost concerned that the grin might be permanent.
"Perfect." The blonde grinned, still in a foggy haze.
The brunette giggled softly and exited, only to hear the faint sounds of excitement through the door as it clicked.
Arizona grinned thinking about the Dr. Torres who sleeps with women, while slipping into street clothes. Tonight would be great, no pressure, feel each other out- she chastised herself for drifting elsewhere in that statement- it would be great. Deep breathe and remember, you're hot.
"Drinks: 2, Callie: 0" the Latina breathed. She hated to admit it, but she may just stumble in to the apartment toni- No, she thought, not going to happen. I am a senior resident, I'm amazing in bed, and damn it, I am in high demand!
As much as she'd like to stand up, down her drink, and find someone to invest in for the night, no one was there that she was remotely interested in. The bar was pretty full and she could barely muster the motivation to finish her drink. This was supposed to be fun, her pick-me-up-from-my-ass kind of night. Erica was gone, no lusty intern to worry about, this was supposed to be looked at as a clean slate. But the more time she spent looking at her napkin, the lower she felt.
Little did she know that a blonde surgeon had just made her way through the doors behind her.
Arizona scanned the bar for an open seat and found her eyes stop upon a solo Dr. Torres. Unfortunately the only seat open near her, wasn't near her at all. She sighed, it would have to do. She smoothly slid into a bar seat and ordered something hard. It could only help her confidence, she reasoned. Turning to her left, she drummed up an introduction with a nice enough looking stranger.
Callie took a sip of her drink as the man next to her left his seat. She contemplated leaving as she heard a "Hey, mind if I sit here?" she recognized the voice to belong to Lexie Grey as she turned towards here. "No, no, just- over-thinking." with that she downed her glass.
"Do you think he'll tell him?" the intern questioned point blank.
"If he's not an idiot." the response was soft as she thought how much of an idiot her friend Mark really was. Here, next to her, was a beautiful young girl who actually cared for him and wanted to be with him and he was making excuses because he'd slept with too many of his friend's sisters. It sounded like a cop-out to her... This is too much, she thought with a sigh.
"Are you okay?"
Callie knew she was concerned, she didn't want her to be concerned. There shouldn't be anything to be concerned about. "Um, um- I don't-" nothing sounded right, "I'm fine." her hand lightly tapped the bar, waved for the brunette to forget about it, and signaled her retreat to the bathroom. Leaving a Lexie Grey, party of one, to think.
Drinks: 2, Chip Basket: 1, Arizona: 0, the blonde thought. The man next to Torres had left, but had quickly been occupied by Dr. Grey before she could think of moving. The conversation with the red-headed woman next to her had remained light and pleasant. She was grabbing a drink while her brother-in-law was in surgery. Since she was only there to support her sister, and the sister had voiced that she wished to be alone, she decided to drink. Her name was Lisa and she had noticed early on that her bar neighbor had a tendency to let her attention shift to woman a few seats away. "So she's your type eh?"
Arizona was caught slightly off guard. Composing herself she replied quickly, "Huh?"
The red-head instinctively lowered her voice "The dark one, over there, sitting with the little one. And judging from your lack of come hither approach and abundance of talking with me, I'm guessing it's a secret." she winked.
The blonde couldn't help but laugh a bit with a regained confidence, "Yes, something like that."
"You should buy her a drink then. Secrets won't get make you happy, or get you laid, for that matter." Lisa smiled.
"Maybe I will." She grinned looking over with the thought of possibility. She noticed that Callie was leaving, but it seemed she hadn't paid, so she couldn't go far. With the faint outlines of a game plan forming, she lifted a small chip with a cheer of confidence.
"Maybe I will."