Bones
Hi everyone. Thank you very much for the reviews, the follows and the favs. I'm really happy to know you like this story.
Anyway I hope you enjoy the next chapter…
CALLIOPE
She watched Joanne stroking the foot of her wine glass. She let the red wine circle in the glass, leaving a slight red fragrance on the edges of the glass.
"I still can't believe you're actually married, Arizona," she laughed, giving a playful swing to her long, black hair.
Callie saw Arizona laughing too, whilst imitating Joanne's movements. The Latina's eyes narrowed and she could no longer supress the urge to ask: "Why is it so difficult for you to believe we're married?"
Addison, who had been observing the two old friends, whilst listening to Nicks jokes, raised her eyebrows. She had noticed Callie wasn't exactly happy with the new guest, but she didn't expect to hear such a slight tone of distrust in her voice.
Joanne's smile evaporated and she watched her glass and stopped the circling. She carefully looked up and said: "I guess that in some way I assumed Arizona would never settle down…"
"Guess you were wrong," Callie added silently before refilling her glass.
"I guess I did," Joanne said, throwing a glance at Arizona before taking a sip of her own red wine.
"So I guess you don't have a relationship?" Callie asked.
Arizona, Nick and Addison had stopped eating. Only Nick was chewing, when Arizona and Addison looked at Callie and Joanne.
"No, I don't," Joanne said, "before I got Arizona's call I was in Africa. And when you're practising medicine in a refugee camp, you don't really have much time for relationships..."
"You've been to Africa?" Arizona asked.
Callie stared at the vivid conversation the others had. Arizona, Nick and Joanne constantly talked about their youth adventures and when Callie turned to Addison to talk to, Addison discovered she and Joanne had the same specialty, so Callie had to listen to latest news on neonatal surgery…
Callie sighed and pulled the blanket up. It was almost midnight and finally everybody had found a place to sleep. Nick was the first to go to bed. He and his sister shared the bed in Mark's apartment. Next was Addison, who had to catch an early flight back to L.A the next morning. She slept on the couch in Mark's apartment. Joanne and Arizona had kept talking, until Callie had practically forced Arizona in bed, because she knew tomorrow would be quite tiresome for her wife. The intense physical therapy and the constant hopping through the house to help Nick asked a lot from her.
When she looked to her left, she saw Arizona taking her prosthetic off. When she saw the red traces it had left on her leg, Callie asked: "Why didn't you take it off?"
She turned around to get a better look, but Arizona muttered that everything was fine, while she rubbed the red traces.
"Arizona, that is not good…" she said, knowing that tomorrow, when Arizona put the prosthetic back on, the wounds would get deeper.
"I'm fine, Callie…" she said, pulling the blanket over what was left of her leg.
"That must have hurt, Arizona. You should take it off and we can adapt it better to your leg…"
"Callie, I'm fine," she switched the light of and said, "Good night."
Callie looked at the darkness and said: "Why didn't you take it off?"
Arizona sighed and muttered: "Try to sleep, Callie…"
"You didn't take it off because of her, did you?"
She listened to the silence and repeated her question.
When Arizona didn't answer she switched the lights back on: "Why didn't you take it off? Because of her? Because she… because…" she stared in silence at her wife, who blinked several times, because of the strong light, "because you didn't want your ex-girlfriend to know your leg is amputated? Why would you…?"
"Callie, please… I promise it won't happen again. Would you please switch the light off?"
The Latina looked at Arizona, who lied down again.
"You don't want her to know you've lost a leg because she would think you're less sexy. Is that it?"
Arizona turned around and looked at her wife: "Has it ever occurred to you that, for just one evening, I wanted everything to be back as it used to be? Even though that isn't possible? Tonight, it finally felt like back in the days when Joanne, Nick, Tim and I went to the beach, or the park or our garage… For just a couple of seconds, it felt like that, even though so much has changed. Nick is dying, I've lost almost my entire left leg and Tim is dead…"
Callie closed her eyes and looked at Arizona, who was somewhere between crying and anger. "Oh… I'm so sorry, Arizona… I didn't mean…"
"Just go back to sleep, Callie," she said, turning around.
Callie stared at Arizona.
God, I'm an idiot she thought before switching of the light.
After a couple of minutes, Callie heard the blanket move and she heard Arizona getting out of bed.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Telling her my leg is chopped off…"
The door was closed before Callie could find something to say.
ARIZONA
She hoped Callie wouldn't follow her and hopped through the kitchen.
Right now she just didn't want to be in the same room with Callie. She could understand Callie in some way. Once somebody had cheated on you, your mind got really suspicious about potential dangers to your relationship. But for now, she was more angry than comprehensive.
She stood still for the door of Mark's apartment, not really knowing if she would actually go in. She looked at the empty hallway and shivered. She felt really stupid standing in front of the door and carefully opened it. She sneaked past the couch on which Addison slept and hopped to the bedroom. When she opened the door, four eyes looked at her. Two of them flashed towards her leg.
She looked at Joanne, who seemed very calm at the sight of her missing leg.
"Come sit with us," the black-haired woman said.
Arizona looked at Nick: "You told her." It was more a conclusion than a question.
"She asked," he said.
Arizona looked at the other woman and felt something within her freeze. The idea that people could see that she missed a leg, even with her prosthetic on, felt threatening.
When Joanne saw the look on Arizona's face, she explained: "I just noticed you walked differently…"
The blonde looked at the empty spot beneath her: "Is it that obvious?"
Joanne gave her a soft smile: "It's just… I notice those things…" she quickly looked away from the blonde, when Nick added: "I still can't see you walking differently… Guess it's just one of Joanne's super powers…"
Arizona sighed and hopped forward: "What is different then?"
Joanne bit her bottom lip: "You used to do this thing with your hips, when you walked…"
Nick smiled, noticing his sister's cheeks got a slight pink colour.
Arizona raised her eyebrows. "Can you be a little bit more precise? It's just that if I walk differently I could get problems with my spine… I'm seeing my prosthetist tomorrow, so he could adapt it…"
Joanne smiled: "Well… it was this… this uhm… you made the movements with your hips…"
"I think Arizona needs you to be more precise," Nick said, enjoying the situation. It didn't happen that often that his sister was actually being shy, "what movements do you mean, Joanne?" he asked.
Joanne looked at Arizona: "These movements… I can't really describe them…"
"Give it a try," Nick said, smirking.
"Uhm, I guess… you did this… sexy thing with your hips"
All three of them laughed.
"I did?" Arizona asked, raising one eyebrow.
Joanne laughed: "Yes. You used to do this really sexy thing with your hips and you didn't do it tonight, so I asked Nick if you still felt that injury from surfing…"
"So you've been looking at my hips?" Arizona asked, teasing her old friend.
"Not only your hips," Nick said quickly.
Joanne quickly slapped his arm: "Don't listen to him," she said dryly.
Nick laughed: "I noticed you have been looking a lot at Addison…"
"Shut up… You've been looking a lot at her too, little brother…"
Arizona laughed, recognising this sort of conversations from long ago.
Joanne looked at Arizona again: "Seriously, is she straight?"
"I think so," Arizona said.
Joanne's left mouth corner curled up in a smile Arizona recognised too good. "You think so?" she asked.
"Don't," she said, "besides, she leaves tomorrow."
"You know that doesn't stop me," Joanne said.
"Unfortunately I'm aware of that," Arizona said, "but she's here because of Mark's funeral, so leave her alone…"
"Alright, alright…" Joanne said, "I was just kidding… who's Mark?"
"The dead guy in whose bed we are sitting," Nick said.
"Very funny, Nick, but the dead guy jokes aren't funny any longer…"
"It's true though," the blonde said, "he's Sofia's father…"
"You lived right next to the sperm donor?" the black haired woman asked.
The blonde let out a small laugh: "Well, he was more than just a sperm donor. He really was a father to Sofia and a good friend of me and Callie…"
Joanne frowned: "And you were completely okay with that? I mean, I thought you didn't want to know the father if you would ever want kids…"
The blonde looked at her hands: "I know I said that but… things didn't really go as planned… You see… when Callie and I broke up a couple of years ago she… she slept with Mark and… she got pregnant. When we got back together, she told me and I was completely chocked at first and I wasn't completely sure if I could be a parent, but when I heard Sofia's heartbeat… I knew that I wanted to be there for her and for Callie."
Joanne stared at her: "And you didn't kill the guy?"
Arizona chuckled: "I was close to doing that, but he's… he turned out not to be that bad… Mark actually turned out to be quite a loyal friend and a good daddy for Sofia…"
"So if you didn't kill him, how did he die?"
Arizona looked up and focussed on the walls of Mark's apartment. "He died after the plane-crash," she sighed, "which brings me back to the leg…" She took a deep breath: "When the plane crashed, emergency services couldn't find us. It took them a week, and I had an open fracture, so of course it…"
"… it got infected…" Joanne answered, "and they had to amputate…"
Arizona nodded.
"May I?" Joanne asked.
The blonde gave a small nod.
Joanne came sitting in front of her and she watched the scar. "It was a clean cut," she said, looking at it from different angles, "the person who did it, certainly did some good work," she muttered still focussed on what was left from the leg.
"Callie did it," Arizona said, refusing to look at Joanne or her leg.
"She did?" Joanne asked, clearly surprised.
"She's an orthopaedic surgeon," Arizona cleared out.
"Yeah, I know… Nick told me…" she said, still watching the scar closely, "… it's just that… I used to work with orthopaedic surgeons and… well… they're mostly carpenters…"
Arizona looked down: "Callie isn't like the other ortho surgeons and she surely isn't a carpenter…"
"I'm just saying most of them aren't exactly good at making precise cuts and stiches, that's all. I'm complementing her work… it's just that… did you learn her our stitching method…?"
Arizona looked at her leg: "No, why are you asking?"
"Because that's what I'm looking at…" she said, looking up from the leg.
"It can't be… The only person who I've learned to do that is Karev…"
She looked at Joanne.
"Give me a mirror," she said, hoping that her thoughts weren't the truth.
CALLIOPE
She was in the middle of preparing breakfast, when Addison came into the room.
"Morning," they both said.
Callie gave her a cup of coffee and her thoughts went back to yesterday evening.
"Is Arizona there?" she asked.
The redhead looked up. "Could be. I haven't been in the bedroom. Wasn't she with you?"
Callie looked at the door. "She was, but then… I said some stupid things and she walked out…"
Addison looked at her friend. "The whole situation isn't easy, is it?"
Callie shook her head and poured some coffee in her cup. She looked up when the door was opened and Arizona hopped in.
"What sort of stitch did you use?" she asked, her eyes locked on Callie.
"What?" she asked in confusion.
"What sort of stitch did you use when you amputated my leg?"
Callie had the feeling the world had stopped spinning and she was caught on the wrong side. "I… I can't exactly remember…"
"You can't exactly remember because you never did it, right?" Arizona hopped closer.
Callie felt Addison's eyes on her.
"I…"
"Why? Why did you lie to me, Calliope?" Callie recognised the mixture of anger and pain.
The Latina stared at her angry wife.
"You are going to tell me the truth, Calliope. The whole story!"
"I was operating on Shepherd when you coded! I was doing the crucial part of the surgery and I couldn't leave. You have to believe me Arizona…"
"You said you would take care of me! I would have understood if you couldn't do it. I couldn't do it either, cutting of your leg. But why did you have to lie about it? And why Karev? Why of all people the guy who had to be on that plane? Why the guy with who I have to work with? The guy who has to see me as his chief, I have to lead a department, and you choose him to cut off my leg? So he sees me as a patient? So that he would always remember he was the one who had to sit there and who had to lose his leg? Off all people in the hospital you chose Alex Karev?!"
Callie stared at her, trying to form sentences out of the loose words that flew chaotically through her mind.
"Get out! Get out! I would go, but since I can't walk further than the park, or drive, you have to get out, Calliope…"
The taller woman obeyed the orders. She couldn't think of anything to say or do. Her thoughts circled chaotically through her mind, leaving her to being an uncontrolled object in space. So she followed her wife's orders.
Addison jumped of the chair and grabbed her suitcases: "Come on, Callie…" she grabbed her friends hand.
"Get out," Arizona said, slamming her crutch against the nearest chair.
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