Callie was waiting outside the elementary school when the final bell rang, and kids began rushing out only seconds after. She saw Riley wheeling her way down the ramp—the girl saw her and looked confused as she approached, "Hey Riley! How was school?"
Riley shrugged, "It was fine, I guess." The girl muttered, wondering if Arizona had informed her of Sofia's tantrum in front of the school that morning. Her guess was no, because Callie seemed unfazed. Riley looked behind her, noticing that Callie had brought her black Mercedes, and asked hesitantly, "So, are you taking us home today?" She was dreading the awkward transfer into the car from the tight parking space while all the kids from school watched. Callie, reading her mind, shook her head, "Don't worry. I'm just here to bring Sofia to her Girl Scout meeting. Arizona should be here any minute with the van to come and get you. You mind waiting a couple of minutes?"
Riley sighed in relief, "That sounds good." Just then, Sofia came from behind her. "Hey m'ija!" Callie called out. Sofia forced a smile, walking past both of them into the car, hopping into the back seat and slamming the door behind her. Callie cringed—it seemed that things were not getting any better between the two girls. Looking over at Riley apologetically, she started, "I'll talk to her—"
"Forget it," Riley said, looking down at her lap. "You guys should get going, or you'll be late." As if on cue, Callie heard the horn of her Mercedes honk from behind her, as Sofia hurried her along. Turning around and holding up a finger to let her daughter know she had to be patient, she turned her attention back to Riley. "I'll see you tonight. If you want, you could help me cook dinner?" Callie offered hesitantly, remembering her promise to Arizona to keep trying, to give it time.
Riley just nodded, pulling out her ipod and inserting the buds into her ears. Reluctantly, Callie turned away from the young girl, and walked toward her car, where her daughter waited impatiently for them to leave.
Riley had been waiting outside the school for nearly twenty minutes. Most of the kids had already been taken home by their parents, and she was one of only three remaining there. The teacher supervising was beginning to round them up, as Riley continued to watch the road. This wouldn't be the first time Callie and Arizona had been late to get her—as Sofia would say with a shrug, "They're surgeons." But a part of her was weighed down with a strange feeling that something wasn't right.
"Riley, why don't you come inside and wait in the after school program now?" the teacher said from behind her. Riley was just about to move when she saw Arizona driving their long, red van toward the school. She stopped at the red light, and waited to go. "Arizona's right there," Riley told the teacher, pointing toward the van at the intersection.
The light turned green and Arizona pulled into the intersection, when out of nowhere, a black truck came barreling through the red light, smashing right into the van. "Arizona!" Riley shouted as the van spun out of control.
Riley moved to wheel toward her, but her teacher held her wheelchair, setting the brake and preventing her from moving forward. Glaring angrily at her teacher, Riley yelled urgently, "I have to go see if she's okay!" But her teacher, held her in place, looking at her sympathetically as she frantically spoke to 9-1-1 on her cell phone.
Desperately, Riley waited for Arizona to climb out of the van, and come over and tell her that she was fine, or something doctorly like, "It's only a flesh wound." But the door did not open, and Riley saw no movement inside the car.
"Woah, there. Take it easy, m'ija. Skating takes practice," Callie instructed her four year old daughter who had just landed flat on her bottom a mere minute after putting on the roller skates they had rented from the rink. Sofia seemed unfazed by this, immediately pulling herself up on the bench and sitting down next to Arizona, who was strapping a roller skate to her prosthetic foot.
"Momma, are you good at skating?" Sofia asked her mother innocently. Callie nodded enthusiastically, "Momma is very good at skating, Sof." Arizona laughed nervously at her wife's confidence, "Well bug, Momma was very good at skating when she had two legs. She's gonna need some practice now though." Sofia looked at Arizona in confusion, "But you do have two legs, Momma." Arizona laughed at her daughter's confusion, kissing her forehead, "I mean two legs with skin on them bug." Sofia still looked confused but seemed to forget it within a moment, distracted colorful lights floating across the rink.
"Ready?" Callie asked her wife, who nodded cautiously, reaching both of her hands out and letting Callie slowly help her to her feet. While she felt unsteady on her prosthetic, the skates still felt familiar and she couldn't help but smile. She had missed this. Hugging the wall, Arizona slowly pushed herself forward and onto the rink, Callie following closely behind her, holding Sofia's hand tightly in her own.
The three of them made their way slowly around the rink, lap by lap. Arizona moved slowly, one hand on the wall at all times, but smiling ear to ear. After a couple of laps around the rink, Callie let go of Sofia's hand. The young girl sailed along with ease, looking back at her mothers excitedly. "Momma! Mami! I'm skating!" she exclaimed with excitement, "Yes, you are!" Callie encouraged cheerfully as her daughter skated on ahead of them.
Having let go of her daughter's hand, Callie grasped onto her wife's, who was watching their daughter rolling along, beaming with pride. "She's a natural," Arizona boasted to her wife, watching Sofia turn the corner smoothly and continue in a new direction. "She is," Callie agreed, squeezing Arizona's hand tightly as the lights turned down, the disco ball above their head reflecting around the rink as it turned.
"She must get it from Timothy," Arizona stated softly, looking to Callie with tears in her eyes. She laughed to herself, shaking her head, "I mean, I know that's ridiculous, given that she's never met him and they share no genetic material, but—"
Callie cut her wife off with a soft kiss on her lips, "You're right. She gets it from her Uncle Timothy."
"Are you talking about me?" Sofia said playfully, as she reversed and skated back over to her mother's. Arizona smiled, placing a hand gently on her head, "We were saying that you skate like your Uncle Timothy. And he would be very proud of you."
"42 year-old female, car accident. Unconscious on the scene, probably from shock or the impact of the airbag. Abdomen is rigid—signs of internal bleeding," the EMT spouted out as they rolled Arizona into the hospital where she was met by several residents, who rolled her gurney inside. April Kepner gasped as she approached the scene, "Arizona?" She momentarily froze, but shook herself out of it as she realized the other residents were looking to her to act.
"Okay, take her to trauma room 2. Page neuro," she instructed, following them into the trauma room. "Transfer on three. One, two, three," April lifted up with the team. She heard Arizona wake up beneath her and groan with pain, "What… where…"
"Arizona, you were in a car accident. Don't try to talk. Push 10 cc of morphine," April told an intern, who grabbed a syringe from the drawer in the corner. Just then, Cristina entered the trauma room, "Need any help in here?" she asked, then looked over at the table, gasping when she saw Arizona.
"We got it, Yang," April shot back, but Cristina asked, "Did anyone come in with her?"
Hearing a young voice call out in in the ER, Cristina rushed out, seeing Riley being rolled in by another EMT, "Arizona! I want to see Arizona!" Cristina ran to meet her, looking up at the EMT, "Was she in the car?"
"No, I was waiting for her at school when I saw the truck run into her," Riley explained urgently looking up at Cristina, "I want to see her!" Cristina knelt down to look her in the eyes, "The doctors are working on her right now, and we need to let them do their jobs."
"Is she gonna be okay?" Riley asked desperately. Cristina kept her face neutral, but sympathetic, "The doctors are doing everything they can—"
"I asked if she was going to be okay!" Riley shouted angrily, tears welling up in her eyes. Cristina looked her in the eyes, "I don't know. I hope so." She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder as she began to cry. Cristina walked around and pushed her wheelchair into the waiting room, taking out her cell phone, "I'm going to call Callie, okay? She'll be here soon." Riley nodded through her tears as Cristina searched through her contacts.
When Callie pulled up to the church where Sofia's Girl Scout meetings took place, Sofia lept out of the car, barely even waiting for the wheels to stop turning, and rushed inside. Rolling her eyes, Callie turned of the engine and stepped out of the car, heading inside behind her. She had to sign a couple of permission slips before leaving her daughter to enjoy the meeting without her.
"Callie! It's good to see you!" the scout leader, Tiffany, greeted her with a smile, "I'm glad you stopped by. When Sofia came in without you, I assumed that you had just dropped her off today." Callie shook her head as she strolled over to the table, sneaking a glance at her daughter who was already deep in conversation with her friends, "Well, you know. At her age, she doesn't want to be seen entering with me. One might think she actually likes spending time with her mother." Tiffany laughed, "I hear that. My kid will try to go a whole meeting without talking to me sometimes, which can be a challenge when your mom's the troop leader."
Chuckling, Callie got down to business. With Arizona leaving work early today to get Riley, she wanted to get this done with as soon as possible in the hopes that the three of them might spend some time together. "So, which of these forms do I need to sign?" Tiffany reached through her folder to locate the permission slip for the trip to the bounce house next weekend when Callie's phone rang.
Pulling it from her purse, Callie looked at the caller ID in confusion; Cristina was calling her. Knowing the Cristina was scheduled to work until midnight tonight, Callie answered in a huff, assuming this was a consult, "I'm not on-call, Yang, so whatever it is, make it quick."
In an instant the color drained from Callie's face, "Wait, what happened?" Tiffany looked over at her in concern, mouthing "is everything okay?" But Callie ignored her, only responding to Cristina, "And Riley's there? She wasn't in the car?" After a quick pause, Callie nodded, answering, "I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm on my way."
Without a word to Tiffany, who was watching her in concern, she walked straight over to Sofia, "M'ija, come on. We have to go." Sofia was about to object, but froze when she saw the panic on her mother's face, "Mami, what's going on?" But her mother was already out the door.
Callie was half way to the car when Sofia caught up to her, "Mami, where are we going?"
"Just get in the car, Sofia," Callie commanded, unlocking the car with her clicker. By the time Sofia had hopped into the back seat, Callie had already started the engine. Sofia was almost in tears by this point, "Mami, you're scaring me. What's going on?"
Stopping to take a breath, Callie turned around and faced her daughter, "Momma was in a car accident, honey. We're going to the hospital." Sofia's face filled with horror as tears instantly began to pour down her cheeks, "Is she gonna be okay?"
The truth was that Callie didn't know, but she reached into the back seat, pulling her trembling daughter in to a tight embrace, "Of course she is." Releasing her, she forced a smile in an attempt to assuage her daughter's fears and focused her eyes on the road in front of her, "Now put on your seatbelt so we can go." Callie instructed, waiting to hear the click before pulling out of the parking space and onto the road.
"Where is she?" Callie demanded at Cristina as she burst through the doors of the waiting room, Sofia at her heels, her eyes red and her face streaked with tears. Cristina stood to meet her, "They just took her to surgery. Her head CT came back clear, so that's a good thing," Callie nodded, but still wanted more, "What's the surgery for? And who's doing it? It better not be one of the new residents, because they're all idiots—"
"Callie," Cristina interrupted, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, "You need to calm down, okay? She had some internal bleeding, so they had to go in to repair the damage. Bailey's doing the surgery." She squeezed Callie's shoulder, "Everyone cares about Arizona and is doing everything they can for her. But you've got to calm down." Subtly, Cristina gestured behind her, where Riley was watching them anxiously and Sofia was looking on with big, terrified eyes. Callie understood what Cristina was saying—she was scaring the girls, she needed to calm down for them.
Nodding to her friend, Callie walked up to the girls, pulling Riley toward her and placing a kiss on her head, and wrapping her other arm around Sofia as she took her seat in the waiting room. "She's going to be okay," she said told her girls, holding one of them in each arm protectively.
"Momma's gonna be just fine," she reassured again for a second time as she felt Sofia trembling in her left arm and Riley sniffling in her right. She said it as much for herself as she did for either of them. Arizona would be okay; anything else was too terrible to comprehend.