Two updates in a week?! You are some lucky readers ;) I feel like I need to make up for leaving you guys hanging for so long, so here's chapter 12!

Previously:

"So I tried to use my credit card earlier. I wanted to buy some flowers for you and Teddy." She explained. The thoughtful gesture made Arizona smile.
"But the girl said my cards had been declined. So I called my dad, and he said he'd blocked my cards, cleared my accounts."

"What? Why?" Arizona questioned. "Because you came out to them?"

Callie nodded, tears pooling in her eyes. Arizona wasted no time in pulling Callie close and sighing sadly. Her thoughts drifted to her fantastic, entirely supportive parents, and briefly wondered why all parents couldn't be more like her own.

"Callie I am so, so sorry."

"He wants me to move back to Miami to work there." Callie sniffed, wiping her eyes.
"He wants to fix me." She sighed tearfully.

Arizona moved her hands, cradling Callie's face gently.
"Hey. Nothing about you needs fixed. You know that, right?"

Chapter 12

Despite Arizona's constant reassurances, Callie was finding it hard to come to terms with her parents' complete refusal to even try to accept her bisexuality. Her sister, Aria, was the only one who she was still in contact with, but Aria had made it clear to Callie that her parents were unaware of this.

Callie pocketed her phone again as she made her way through the entrance of the hospital. She smiled at Mark, who was already waiting for her with two cups of steaming coffee.
"Hey, shiny new attending. How'd it go?"

Callie grinned, taking a cup and bringing it to her lips. She savored the hot, strong taste, secure in the knowledge that Mark had fixed it with just the right amount of sugar for her.
"Really well actually. They asked me some pretty tricky questions, but I went for it, I told them exactly what I'd do, not what I thought they'd want to hear for me to pass. And it worked." She smiled, linking arms with her best friend.

"That's awesome Cal, I knew you'd ace it. I suppose you should go see Webber now."

Callie grinned, casting her mind back to the conversation she had had with the Chief just before her Boards.
"I suppose I should. Hey, I'm not getting too comfortable though. Just because he wants me as an attending doesn't mean I'm safe when the merger happens. Any news on when that's going to be yet?"

"Next week, or the week after." Mark shrugged nonchalantly.
"Must be nice knowing you're safe." Callie chuckled, unlinking their arms so that she could swat his.
"You'll be safe too, rock star. Just wait and see."

As agreed, Webber invited Callie to remain on the surgical staff with her promotion to attending. Since Dr. Chang wouldn't be more than a few years away from retirement, the Chief had insinuated that Callie could be the youngest department head in the hospital when the time came.

Callie was more than happy with the pay-rise attached to her promotion, as soon she wouldn't have to worry about money. What she would have to worry about was having her job stolen from her by a Mercy West ortho attending, so she also made it clear to Dr. Webber that she would take on extra shifts in the ER. The more she was seen to work, the better she thought her chances were.

"What's your hot new girlfriend gonna think of that, Torres?" Mark asked as they ate lunch together in the cafeteria.
"When exactly do I get to meet her, by the way?"

Callie chuckled, popping a piece of lettuce into her mouth.
"When I'm sure you're not going to perv on her Mark, so maybe never." She joked.
"She works long and complicated hours too, I'm sure she'll understand it. Besides, she'll understand that it's not forever, it's just until I'm safe."

Mark shook his head. In his eyes, she wasn't going anywhere.

Arizona watched as the nail technician effortlessly applied the gel varnish onto her fingernails, before being asked to put them under the UV lamp. Ensuring that her hair and nails were maintained were an important part of Arizona's job, and it was also a good excuse for a little pampering. She glanced over at Teddy, who was indulging in a pedicure. The flight attendant chuckled.
"What?" Teddy smiled.
"You spend the majority of your working day sitting on your butt yet you always pick a pedicure when we come here." They'd discovered the little salon their first week in Seattle and had fallen in love with it.
"Hey, I'll have you know that my job is plenty stressful." The pilot retorted playfully.
"So get a massage." Arizona countered, glad that she could get her hands out from under the lamp.
"Eh, this makes my feet look pretty. Massages are always over too soon."

Arizona chuckled before standing and pulling her phone from her pocket. No messages or calls. She chatted with the technician as she paid her bill and soon enough Teddy was finished as well. Arizona stole another quick glance at her phone as they left.
"Nothing from Callie?"

The flight attendant shook her head.
"No. I mean I know it's her first day as an attending, but I thought she'd at least text me to let me know how she's doing."
"She's maybe just been too busy." Teddy offered.

Arizona nodded, tucking her phone back into her pocket again.
"I'll text her after we've had lunch."

"Speaking of, did you want to go to that little place near the apartment that does those awesome steak sandwiches?"

Arizona chuckled as she and Teddy opened the doors of her Fiat 500.
"Is that your not-so subtle way of saying that you want to go there?"

Teddy grinned, closing the door as Arizona started the car.
"Yes please."

Hey rock star, I hope your first day, as an attending hasn't been too stressful. Do you want to go see a movie tonight? My treat. A xx

Hey! Not too bad, just crazy busy! A movie sounds great, if I get out of here at a decent time. I'll keep you posted. Did you and Teddy have a nice pamper morning? V jealous! C xx

Awesome, I'll have a look at what's showing. Today was great, just missing you. A xx

Same. I'll call you later. C xx

Arizona sighed. It was now 10pm and all hopes she'd had of taking Callie on a movie date were quickly disappearing. Instead she changed into her sweats and turned on the TV, flicking the channels until she could find something tolerable to watch.

The sudden buzz of her cell phone a short while later made the blonde jump. Smiling as she realized it was Callie, she swiped the screen to answer.
"Hey you."
"Hi, I'm sorry I'm so late, the ER was packed tonight. Bus crash." Callie explained, sounding tired.
"That's horrible. Don't worry about it, we can go to the movies another night." Arizona reasoned, playing with the hem at the bottom of her sweatpants as she spoke to Callie.
"Do you have to go in early tomorrow? We could grab a quick breakfast somewhere if you want."

Callie sighed.
"I've got to be back at 6 tomorrow to round on my pre-ops, it's going to be a busy day. Maybe tomorrow night?"

Arizona smiled sadly. She missed Callie already and hated that her girlfriend sounded so over-worked.
"We'll figure something out. Just get home safely and get some sleep, ok?"

"Ok, I'll text you later." Callie smiled, already making her way home as she ended the call.

Two surgeries down, three to go. I can barely keep my eyes open! C xx

I'm pretty sure you should try if you're cutting people open! A xx

I'm going to try to grab an hour in an on-call room, I'll call you tonight. C xx

"She's still busy?" Teddy asked as Arizona texted her girlfriend the following morning.
"Yeah. Why do I get the feeling she's blowing me off…?"

Teddy smiled in understanding.
"You know she's not right? She's got a brand new job, and a lot to prove. Just give her a few weeks to settle into it."

The flight attendant nodded, trying her best to take Teddy's advice onboard. The fiasco that was the ending of her last relationship still haunted her.
"I just don't want this to turn into another 'Joanne' situation. I really, really like her already, Teds. I just don't want her to run."

Teddy shook her head, reaching out and placing her hand on top of Arizona's.
"She's already seen your cupcake pjs. Trust me, if she was going to run, she'd have done it already."
With a quick squeeze of her best friend's hand, Teddy disappeared to her room to pack for her upcoming trip, happy to have elicited a hearty laugh from the blonde.
"Mean!"

Arizona sighed, gazing out of the large windows at their view of Seattle. If she looked far enough to the left she could make out the sign of Seattle Grace. Suddenly a plan formed, and she grabbed her jacket and purse and disappeared out of the door before Teddy even realized that she was gone.

What had seemed like a very good idea fifteen minutes ago was starting to feel like a very bad one now. The last time that Arizona had stood in the lobby of the hospital, Callie knew she was there. This time the surgeon hadn't the slightest clue, and the flight attendant didn't think it was acceptable to go knocking on doors to look for her.

With a dejected sigh, she turned to leave when a voice stopped her.
"Are you looking for someone?"

Arizona turned again, a shy smile on her face as she tried to explain herself.
"Uh, sort of."
"Friend? Family member?"

Now Arizona knew this had been a bad idea. People come in here to see their sick loved ones, not to surprise their super-hot surgeon girlfriends! She berated herself silently.

"I um…wanted to surprise my girlfriend. She works here. Callie Torres." She admitted, watching in confusion as a smirk enveloped the stranger's face.

"You must be Arizona." He chuckled, extending his hand.
"Mark Sloan. I think we have someone in common."

Callie rolled her head from right to left and stretched her arms as she made her way to the cafeteria. Her last surgery, albeit successful, had been long, and she was now feeling the effects. As she reached her hand up to remove her scrub-cap, she caught sight of two very familiar faces. Two faces that she hadn't yet introduced to each other.

Mark caught her eye, smirking and sticking his thumb up behind Arizona's head. The blonde followed Mark's gaze, a super-magic smile gracing her features as she laid eyes on Callie. Quickly closing the gap between them, Callie accelerated her pace, throwing her arms around Arizona as soon as she was close enough.

"What the hell? Where did you find him?" Callie asked, making a playful face at Mark.

"I just had the idea to surprise you for coffee. We bumped into each other in the lobby."

A mega-watt smile adorned Callie's face as she stole a quick, work-place appropriate kiss from Arizona's lips.
"I am so glad you're here, and I'm so glad you two finally got to meet. Best friend, meet girlfriend. Girlfriend, meet best friend. And he's a total perv, so I apologize in advance for him hitting on you."

Arizona giggled, coming to Mark's defense.
"He was a perfect gentleman."

Mark smiled proudly, then rolled his eyes as his pager went.
"Duty calls. Great to meet you, Blondie. You gals have fun!" He winked, disappearing down the hall.

Arizona crinkled her nose in annoyance.
"Blondie?"

"Yeah, Mark's an acquired taste. You'll learn to love him." Callie smiled, unable to stop herself from planting a quick peck on the blonde's scrunched nose.
"You're adorable. But I'm beat and you mentioned coffee…"

Callie, liking the prospect of her girlfriend surprising her with coffee visits, resisted the urge to get a quick but crappy cup from the cafeteria. Instead, she took her to the coffee cart that actually sold the good stuff. That way, Arizona would come back for more. Sun shining, she then led Arizona to a bench only a short walk from the hospital's car park.
"Wow, look at the view of the city from here."

"Yeah, I find myself here when those four walls get to be too much."

Arizona took a seat, snuggling up to Callie as she brought her coffee to her lips.
"Good day so far?"

Callie nodded.
"Yeah. Just busy. Not only do I have to worry about the interns, I've now got to worry about the residents too. And my surgeries."

"Yikes. Sounds fun."

"I moan, but it really is fun. I can't get enough of it."

The joy Callie found from her job was written all over her face. It made Arizona feel guilty about the feelings she had confessed to Teddy. Noticing a change in the blonde's demeanor, Callie reached to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Arizona's ear.

"Everything ok?"

"Yeah. Yeah it's just really stupid."

"It's not stupid if it's bothering you. Tell me." Callie urged gently. In the short time that they had been together, it was clear that as open as Callie was with her feelings, the blonde was her polar opposite.
"God knows I've unloaded on you enough times. Tell me."

Sighing nervously, Arizona turned to face Callie, finding calm in those deep brown eyes.
"I just…I got the feeling you were blowing me off." She admitted.
"And I feel like such a bitch for thinking it now. You've got a new job, you've got to prove yourself all over again, you've got the merger to worry about…and here was me freaking out because I couldn't go to the movies with you. I'm not usually this person, but my last relationship was fine, like totally fine, and then it just wasn't!"

Suddenly Callie's lips were on hers, effectively silencing her. As they broke apart, Callie smiled sadly.
"I'm sorry I made you feel like that. I never, ever meant to. I promise, I would far rather go see a movie than be here nearly 24 hours a day…" She sighed.
"But this merger is really scaring me. I really don't want to be jobless because we went to see The Hunger Games."

Arizona chuckled softly in agreement, her hand cupping Callie's cheek.
"I get that. I totally get that. I told you it was stupid, but I also wanted you to know how I felt."

"And I'm glad you did. I swear, as soon as this merger is over, we'll go see as many movies as you want. I promise."

The blonde's hand left a tanned cheek, trailing gently down so their hands linked as Callie spoke again.
"Can I ask what happened in your last relationship?"

"She was a check-in agent at JFK. Joanne. We just clicked. It was fun, and easy and we really liked each other. I asked her to move in a year later and she seemed so excited about it. Then about a week before we were supposed to move, I woke up to a note on my dresser. All it said was I can't. Sorry."

"Holy crap." Callie breathed. "What a bitch…"

Arizona nodded in agreement.

"Erica was the same." Callie started.
"We were really close friends, and then we just started fooling around. Then she started crying one time after sex and telling me that she could see the leaves and that she was 'totally gay'. When she found out I'd been fooling around with Mark too, she told me that I couldn't be 'sort of gay'. Then she just left."

"Wow. Women can be awful." Arizona frowned.
"It's ok to be bisexual! Just no more sex with Mark, ok?" The blonde joked.

"Oh God no. He was just my fuck buddy. We work way better as friends."

The blonde chuckled.
"He seems like a really sweet guy. We could set him up with one of the girls I fly with. I think they'd hit it off."

Callie grinned, glad that Arizona had taken a liking to Mark, and even more happy that she had been truthful about her feelings.

"I'm not sure what time I'll get off tonight, but I could come by yours with a six-pack of beer and a giant pepperoni pizza?"

The smile that soon appeared between dimpled cheeks told Callie that the idea was a very welcome one.

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