AN: This chapter is set over a few days and I will make each little day/story as clear as possible. Also I just want to thank the people who have stuck around and been reading my little story! It means a lot!
Chapter 17
Callie wakes up to a high-pitched shriek. She is on her feet in less then a second reaching for the light. "Arizona!" Callie sees Arizona breathing heavily with tears streaking down her flushed cheeks. "Are you ok? What's wrong?" Callie says climbing back into bed and wrapping strong arms around the shaking blond. "Was it a nightmare?" She says after a second when she gets no response. Arizona covers her face with her hands. She nods after second reminding herself that she needs to let Callie in rather then keep pushing her away. "What happened, baby? I know it always makes people feel better when they let it out rather then bottle it up." Arizona slowly takes her hands away form her face. "It…it was…horrible. I-I don't think you will want to know." The blond says having to pause a few times to catch her breath. "Of course I want to know! I always want to know if something is borrowing you." Callie says. Arizona swallows hard and begins telling her horrible dream. "Well… I had a prosthetic leg and I was home. I was walking again… well starting to…" She lets her sentence trail off. "That sounds good?" Callie says questioning the blonde's behavior. "But-but you left. You went to the grocery store to get more juice…or was it toothpaste? I was just trying to give Sophia lunch when…" Arizona starts crying again. "It was an accident. I didn't mean to hurt our little girl." Callie struggles to put two and two together but finally comes up with what is upsetting her wife. "No, baby Sophia is fine. You didn't hurt her." Callie says trying to calm her down. "I-I-I fell! I was trying to bring her to her high chair and I fell!" Arizona weeps looking very close to hyperventilating. Callie hops off of the bed running out of the room returning with an unharmed and sleeping baby in her arms. "See, she's ok. It was just a bad dream." Arizona nods taking the baby's small hand in hers. They fall asleep with Sophia between them.
Callie knocks on Marks door. "Mark!" She yells through the door after he doesn't respond. She had not seen him much sense the funeral but she knew he had a full week of long shifts. She had offered to cover for him sense all that was going on but he had said that it would be good for him to have a little distraction. He had a shift from 5 AM to 5 PM the first day after the funeral, the next he had the night shift for 6 PM to 5 AM and then the third was from 7 AM to 7 PM. Callie had taken a few days off to stay with Arizona sense she was obviously not doing very well with her home health care nurses and could not stay alone. She had been nervous to go over and check on him when he got back from his shifts because she knew he would need to rest. After dozens of phone calls he never answered and hundreds of text messages never replied Callie decided that she just had to check to see how he was doing. It was not like him to not talk to her at least daily. She doubted that he would even be home, hoping that he had gone out for a drink with some of the guys or out to diner. Pretty much anything other then him avoiding her seemed like a good thing.
She pulled the shiny silver key he had given her just in case of emergencies and put it into his doorknob. Walking into the dark apartment she saw only a faint light coming from the empty bathroom. Walking in slowly she flipped on the light switch. "Mark!" She said surprised. Mark shields his eyes from the bright light groaning. "How long have you just been laying here?" She notices the stubble growing on his chin and upper lip. "Well I worked the other day but I came home sick. I just…need some rest. I need to think." He rolls over so that his back is to the angry Latina. "You have just been laying in bed for three days, not answering my calls! Sympathy starts to kick into Callie's voice. "Mark, that's not healthy. I know that it has been hard sense Lexie passed but you can't just give up. You can't just block everyone out." Mark nods. "I have tried. To live, to forget, to smile, but I just don't want to without her. Or I'm just not ready to yet."
Anger, fear, sadness and sympathy all fight for dominance in Callie's head. She rips the covers off of him. A foul smell emanates from the sheets as she pulls them down. "Stop!" He says curling up slightly to keep his warmth. "No! Because I will not let you rot away. I need you and you need me. We have been through so much in the past few months and I know if I were falling apart you would do this for me. I need you, for support, for stability and I refuse to let you waste life. We both have been shown that life is a gift. I know how easy it seems to just stop rather then push on when it hurts so much but that's just what we have to do…together."
She pulls She pulls him out of bed with all of her might and shoves him into the bathroom. While he bathes she strips the gross sheets off of his bed and throws them into the washer machine. She also grabs him some clothes. When she hears the water stop running she hands in the cloths and tells him to shave. Once he looks like his old self again Callie brings him over to her apartment. "No Callie, I'm fine. I don't need to stay with you. You have enough to deal with without the burden of me." Mark pleas. "You are absolutely not a burden and you do need to stay with me because I need to be able to keep an eye on both you and Arizona. How do I know that you won't just crawl under the covers if I leave? It will only be for a few days. Just till I can get you back to the old you. As a bonus you get more Sophia time!" Mark nods giving up. Maybe did need this after all. When they walk into the apartment the place is completely quiet. "Arizona and Soph are both asleep." Callie answers simply. She heats up some leftovers and makes up a bed for him on the couch. She spends the night walking between her bedroom and the living room checking on both of her loved ones.
*Buzz, Buzz* Callie wakes up sprawled across a chair in the living room with her phone vibrating in her pocket. After a few days of her nightly rounds she couldn't manage to stay awake long enough to get back to her room. She had set alarms to tell her every hour when to go back out and check on Mark. Callie looked at her phone to find a massage from Arizona. "Where are you?" The tired Latina slowly rises out of the chair, all of her muscles screaming out in pain. She walks into her bedroom to find Arizona sitting up in bed. "Sorry I was checking on Mark and I must have fallen asleep." Arizona looks at her worried. "Callie, you look like you haven't slept in days. I saw you get out of bed twice last night and a few the night before. I know how much of an amazing and selfless person you are but you have to take care of yourself." She pats the place next to her and Callie slides in. "I know you are worried about us but right now I'm worried about you. You need to take a nap. I will watch Mark and he will watch me. We will be fine." Before Callie can object her head hits the plush pillow and she drifts off to sleep.
"Calliope, wake up." Arizona says leaning forward in her wheelchair to shack the sleeping Latina. After all she is a heavy sleeper. "We made you breakfast…well more of a meal between lunch and diner." Callie reaches for her phone seeing that it is a little past four. "Wow I was asleep for a long time." Arizona nods. "Yah, but you needed it. Oh and Alex called Mark and he is coming over for diner and some PT training thing I think. Mark didn't give me the details but he will be here at 4:30." Callie remembers Mark talking about asking Alex to teach them how to properly carry Arizona. She knows that the blond will not approve of this so she didn't mention it.
"Great do we have stuff to eat?" "Yah, Mark ordered some pizza." Callie goes to jump out of bed when she feels offal pains in her arms, legs and back. "What's wrong?" Arizona says seeing the sudden stop in motion. "My muscles just hurt for sleeping in the chair." Callie says getting up slower this time. They go out into the living room to find Mark laying out padded mats. "What are you doing?" Arizona asks wheeling herself over to him. "Nothing. Just thought this would be a good…mat for Sophia to lay on." Callie almost laughed out loud at how bad of a layer her was. Just then they hear a knock at the door. "I'm going to change." Callie says running out of the room. She comes back a second later in workout cloths to find them talking.
She joins their conversation. "Are we ready to get started with this lifting thing or are we going to do it after we eat? All I know was that I was offered pizza and beer." Alex says. Arizona looks around confused noticing the comfortable clothes all of them were wearing. "What do you mean lifting thing? I feel like you all know something I don't." Alex looks amused. "I had a feeling you wouldn't mention it to her. Arizona I came here to teach them how to carry you properly." A stunned look crosses her face. "No! I am so not doing that!" "Baby, it is just so that we can help you. Mark and I keep doing it the wrong way and we don't want you to get hurt." Arizona rolls her eyes. After a few argues back and forth she give in.
Arizona stands up and Alex scoops her off of her foot. "First way you can hold her is like this." He has her good leg to his chest with his arm under her knee. With the other arm he puts it around her lower back and instead of having it by her arm he has it supporting her hip and upper thigh. "This one is a little harder to learn but once you have it its pretty helpful." He lowers her to the ground helping her keep her balance. "I just hope you know I really, really hate this!" Arizona says making all of them chuckle. "Mark do you want to try?" Alex adds. Arizona throws her head back groaning. It really sucked being picked up in general but its even worse when you are picked up by someone who has no idea what they are doing!
Mark walks up to her and tries to scoop her up like Alex had. He hadn't expected such a difference between the side of her body with the leg and the side without one. He didn't know where to hold onto so she started to hang awkwardly from his arms with half of her body just dangling. She tries to cling to him for dear life but cant get a grip. "Ahhhh!" Arizona says when she feels herself slip even closer to the ground. "She's falling! What do I do?" Mark says panicked as he jumps to make her scoot up his body more. This only makes it worse. "Try to get your left arm down lower so that you are touching the other leg. That will even it out more." Callie can't help but find the sense in front of her hilarious. By the time Mark had figured out this lift Arizona had fallen on the plush mats twice and been caught by Alex once.
"Well this "dinner" has really sucked!" Arizona says laying on her back on the mat. "Yes but you will thank me when you don't have to be lifted into the car by you armpits." Alex says looking over to Mark. "I tried my best! Now I know how to do it!" The three people sitting on the couch all laugh. After their quick break Alex shows Mark another simpler way to hold her where the stump is against his chest. He caught on to this one way faster then the first. "Oh now it s my turn." Callie says. Just as Alex leans down to pull Arizona back up she starts to protect. "No Callie. Your back. I don't want you to get hurt doing this stupid thing." Callie looks disappointed. "But I want to be able to help you. What if Mark isn't here? What if its an emergency?" Alex sees the predicament and decides to step in before it turned into an argument. "How about I come back again when Callie's back is ok?" "Ok I guess. But just so you know I really disliked this night activity." They send Alex home with half of the pizza and a case of beer as a thank you.
AN: So I will be taking requests on what you would like to see next chapter or further on in the story. Arizona I think will be starting with a new home health aid and maybe even go I to get fitted with a prosthetic so keep reading! Also i have been trying to add a picture to this story and its not working! Omg its making me crazy!