Thanks for the reviews! Hope you enjoy this next chapter! Probably only a couple of chapters left in this fic!
Finally the big day came. Arizona and Callie were shocked when they realised Jo wanted the demo of their song by tonight. They were too caught up in each other that they didn't see time going quicker and quicker. Callie had woken Arizona early, but the blonde was less than pleased when she realised they weren't on the same page about early morning wake-ups.
"You play a lot of instruments" Arizona widened her eyes as she saw the different instruments in the place Callie recorded her demo's. It was a part of the house she had no need to go to before, but now Callie wanted her to sing the song with her. She tried to get out of it and pretended to go back to sleep, but the fiery Latina was having none of it and as Arizona sat down, she couldn't even remember telling Callie that she would definitely do it.
"You don't play any instruments?" Callie asked.
"Not exactly a necessary requirement of cleaning houses" the blonde wrinkled her nose up. "Callie" she sighed. "I really don't want to sing"
"You have a beautiful voice" Callie pleaded with her. "It's a duet"
"It's still only a demo" Arizona made her excuse. Callie began to pout at her. "Fine but please tell me you have something to auto tune my voice and make me sound like Madonna or something"
"Madonna?" Callie widened her eyes and laughed. "Really?"
"Nothing wrong with Madonna" Arizona's blue eyes gleamed.
"I can try, but only Jo will hear it at the end of the day. Oh and maybe Karev" Callie shrugged. "But you seem to get on well with them"
"I don't really know them" Arizona laughed. "But I will do it, for you" she added, rolling her eyes slightly as she reached the end of her sentence.
"Well I have to record the tune first" Callie told her. "So I won't need your pretty little voice for a while yet"
"Can't you play and sing at the same time?" Arizona asked.
"What the guitar, the piano and the drums at the same time?" Callie chuckled. "I can try, but it'll be tough" she added sarcastically as two pink spots appeared on Arizona's cheeks.
"That was a pretty stupid question on my behalf" Arizona was unable to hide her smile and her blushing didn't seem to fade. "I'm going to shut up now and let you do your thing"
Arizona sat on one of the stools and Callie glanced around at the different instruments she was going to use to record the song. She decided to go with the piano first, it was most familiar to her because it was the instrument she'd been using the whole time with Arizona, besides it would be a lot harder to start with the drums first. Arizona admired the way Callie put so much effort into perfecting the tune and it reminded her of the debate they once had about whether the lyrics or the melody was the most important elements to a song. Callie pressed the record button and played the melody she'd written for the piano. Arizona had no idea how this was all going to come together at all and presumed Callie must be a whizz with music technology. Arizona thought this would be a one instrument job, with two voices being recorded using a camera but Callie seemed to be making a lot of effort for this demo. Arizona knew she had to, from what she had seen of Cristina so far. She had no idea how Callie was in a band with her for so long.
Arizona allowed herself to daydream, thinking of their situation. Nothing official had been said yet and Arizona was beginning to get worried. She cared for Callie, maybe too much and was beginning to worry she was falling for this woman a little too hard. Arizona wished she had the confidence to ask Callie out right what she wanted and at one point she had that confidence until Lauren knocked her so far down that she'd only recently began to get back up. Arizona was scared of what Callie would say to her and she knew that a rejection from this women would hurt her. Not close to the extent Lauren hurt her, but considering Callie was the only woman she'd grown close to since then, any rejection would hurt a great deal.
One of Arizona's weak points was her impatience. Her brother often called her out on how impatient she was and she was already struggling to be patient with Callie now. They had sex, a lot of sex , all of which was very good but Arizona needed more from Callie and wasn't sure if Callie was ready to give that to her or not. Her mind was going into overdrive recently, she was thinking of Lauren more too nowadays, still in shock that she was in the same place as Arizona. Arizona had a million questions, a million questions that she knew wouldn't get answered.
Meanwhile Callie was glancing over at Arizona with the same look in her eyes. Once this whole drama was over, she was planning on asking Arizona out on a date. She knew Arizona had been hurt, Callie was hurt by Erica too but she'd become a better person for it. Arizona was a little harder to read than Erica though, although Callie felt she knew her quite well by now, she could never be to certain of how the blonde was going to react to anything Callie said or did. Maybe tonight they could grab dinner. Jo said she would hear both demos one after the other and then decide right there. Callie prayed that she would get the gig, she wouldn't be able to stand the smug look on Cristina's face if she didn't.
The piano playing came to an end and Callie hit the stop button on the recording.
"I still have no idea how this is all going to come together" Arizona gave a nervous laugh.
"Magic" Callie grinned in reply, picking up the guitar. She'd barely practised the song on the guitar. Still she had the notes in front of her so it would be easy to get into the swing of things. "I'm going to need a couple of practises first"
"Go ahead" Arizona smiled. They still had a good few hours left. Arizona had packed up her stuff in case Callie wanted her to leave that night. She was quite sad thinking about leaving Callie and not sharing a place with her anymore. Arizona had to admit she wasn't overly keen on the idea at the beginning either. She hadn't been inside her own place in so long she'd forgotten what it looked like. Arizona was taken aback on how different the song sounded on the guitar. It took Callie a couple of practises to perfect it, before she began to record. Once she had finished, she turned to Arizona.
"Now the magic begins" she smiled.
"What about the drums?" Arizona asked, looking at the drum kit that stood in the corner of the room.
"Well I need to know when to add the beats in" Callie smiled. "So I'm going to merge these two recordings together and then play it whilst recording again with the drums"
"I'm completely and utterly lost" Arizona responded looking at Callie.
"Luckily I only need your voice and lyrical talents eh?" Callie raised her eyebrows.
"Is that all you need me for?" Arizona asked quietly, her face had a concerned look on her face. However, Callie had already pulled on a pair of headphones and hadn't heard Arizona. She kept a hand on Arizona's thigh though, which was somewhat relaxing for Arizona. She watched Callie mess around with some software on the computer, none of which Arizona understood. She was hopeless at computers and technology in general. Her mother often joked she worked better on the computer than she did. It only took Callie about five minutes to put the two tracks together and trim the tracks so it sounded like the song. When she was finished and pleased with the effort she handed the earphones to Arizona.
"Listen" Callie urged her and played the track she'd just put together. Arizona listened to the melody she'd heard constantly for the past two weeks. Now it sounded so much more professional.
"That's really good" Arizona smiled, taking the earphones off. "It's amazing how you did that" she smiled.
"Thank you" Callie smiled, leaning over to kiss Arizona gently on her lips. "Now the drums" she cast an excited look at the drums. It had been a while since she had a reason to play the drums.
"I just didn't have you pegged down as a drummer" Arizona laughed.
"Oh I'm not" Callie laughed. "I can add a few beats to a song but that's pretty much it"
"Do your magic then" Arizona smiled. Callie sat down at the drum kit and began to record again. The song began to play in the background. Arizona had no idea how Callie knew when the song needed a bit of a beat added to it, but she trusted Callie to make the right decision. The drumming part was considerably less than the guitar or piano parts as most of the drumming occurred in the chorus and was mainly just gentle taps. Callie continued to do her magic again and Arizona was once again amazed.
"Now for the vocals" Callie grinned pointing to a pair of microphone stands. Arizona rolled her eyes and followed Callie. She knew it was too late to get out of it by now.
They both knew that the finished product was good. Arizona knew her vocal talents was nowhere near Callie's but Callie made her feel like she did a good job. The demo was burned onto a CD and ready to take over to Jo's place. They were waiting for a cab when Callie began to pace round the room nervously.
"Oh my god" she began. "I can't lose to Cristina" she began. "Why did I do this?" she asked.
"It's a good song" Arizona told her, physically forcing Callie to stop moving by grabbing her shoulders. "You did good Callie" she smiled. Callie began to calm down a little bit.
"Do you think we're gonna get the job?" she asked. Arizona paused.
"I can't predict anything Callie but together we wrote an amazing song and regardless of what happens we should both be very proud of ourselves" she smiled. The taxi beeped it's horn from outside. "Don't worry" she urged Callie.
"It's hard not to" Callie gave her a small smile and squeezed her hand gently. "So..erm do you maybe want to get dinner tonight? I mean only if you want to" she asked, slightly beginning to ramble and blush. Arizona laughed.
"I would love to grab dinner with you" she smiled, squeezing Callie's hand back. Callie grinned at her, glad she hadn't been rejected instantly. The pair lingered for a second before the taxi beeped again and they knew they had to get a move on.
The drive over to Jo's house had always been nerve-wracking for Callie and today was no exception. Her palms were clammy because she knew today was the day. Everything she had been working on with Arizona boiled down to this day, to Jo's decision. Once the taxi pulled up outside, Arizona gave Callie a smile that provided some comfort.
Cristina was already sat inside looking pretty smug with herself. Beside her was Stephanie Edwards, a girl who was looking more and more stressed every time Callie and Arizona saw her. She would probably be glad never to see Cristina again by the looks of things. Callie took a seat next to Cristina.
"May the best woman win" Cristina smiled smugly as Jo came into the room. "Here's my demo" she stood up and immediately thrust the CD in Jo's arms. Jo looked bewildered but took it anyway. Callie handed her the demo in a calmer way. Jo thanked them both and left the room again so she could listen to the demo's. Callie was beginning to feel sick. "You look a little pale Callie" Cristina observed. "Maybe you should skip Mer's dinner tonight. I mean we'll probably be celebrating my new gig too…" she added, which didn't make Callie feel any better at all.
"Mer's dinner is tonight?" Callie asked, completely forgetting the invitation Mark had passed her way a couple of weeks earlier. She looked at Arizona with an apologetic expression on her face.
"Rain check?" Arizona suggested, lowering her voice so Cristina couldn't hear their conversation.
"Come with me" Callie asked. "Please" she asked, hoping Arizona wouldn't be scared off at the possibility of spending a night with Callie and her friends. "Everyone will be bringing their dates"
"I'm your date?" Arizona questioned, a small smile spreading across her face.
"Yeah" Callie responded. "I mean only if you want to be, you don't have to be. But I want you….to be my date" she rambled, her face becoming flush. Asking Arizona to be her date in front of Cristina was not the kind of situation Callie had expected to be in.
"Of course I will" Arizona smiled, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted of her shoulders. She was a little nervous about meeting a lot of new people, but Callie was going to be there so that was all that matters. Although now she hoped even more that Callie would win, just so Cristina wouldn't be rubbing it in their faces throughout dinner. Jo returned about ten minutes later and Callie and Cristina both leapt to their feet.
"Both songs were really good" Jo began. "It was a difficult decision" she added. "But I have made that decision and I'm pleased to announce that I will be using the song Callie and Arizona wrote" she trailed off as Callie began to cheer really loudly. She turned to Arizona who had stood up hearing the news and began to twirl her around, both of them laughing and cheering. Jo was overwhelmed when both Callie and Arizona hugged her at once but she laughed with them.
"I look forward to doing this duet with you on the tour" she grinned. "I have to leave now, just see yourselves out and I'll be in touch about rehearsing together" she smiled, leaving the room. Callie continued cheering for a while before she turned to Cristina who hadn't moved since Jo delivered the news. Callie walked over to her.
"You know…" she began. "You look a little pale, maybe you should skip Mer's dinner. After all we'll be celebrating my win" she echoed Cristina's words, with a huge smirk across her face.