AN: Sorry I have been having computer issues but now I'm back! It seems like I have a few committed readers so I will keep writing it for you! Anyway I would like to thank CaseyJr for a great idea for this chapter!
Chapter 18
"Hello, my name is Mary and I am from Seattle Health Assistance." Callie reaches her hand out to shake a tall African American woman's hand. "Hi I'm Callie. Please come in." The woman looks to be in her fifties. "Arizona is in the bathroom. I'm sure she will be right out." Callie watches as the stranger scans her apartment with her eyes before taking a seat on the couch. "Would you like a drink? Tea or coffee?" Callie asks feeling a little bit uncomfortable. "No thank you. But I would appreciate it if you told me a little bit about Arizona. Starting out with whom you are in relation to her."
Callie takes a seat in a chair opposite the woman. She can already tell that this woman is a no nonsense kind of person. "Oh I'm sorry I should have mentioned that I'm Arizona's wife. She was in a plain crash and lost her left leg, but I bet you already know that much from the papers I sent into your office." Callie says not thinking before she shares her thoughts. "I do. I meant more along the lines of how her mobility is, how she is mentally and has she started PT?" Mary adds. "Oh, sorry. She is getting around now in a wheelchair only but we have tried to get her up on crutches once. She is mentally doing well, she was pretty depressed and lashed out a lot but now she is getting better. She has not done a lot of PT yet. Only a few sessions but they will start to become more frequent beginning this week." Callie answers.
"How much help does she need in basic everyday tasks and is she open to receiving help?" Callie has to think. "Um… she needs a fair amount of help and she is not very open to asking or receiving it." She says nervously but not knowing why exactly. "Please fill out this paperwork." The nurse hands Callie a thick stack of papers. "Ah ok." She tries her best to answer all of the questions.
After a few minutes of silently filing out the paperwork Arizona comes out of the bathroom. "Hey babe. This is Mary, the new nurse." Arizona has a blank look on her face. She is not happy that she has to have another nurse. She would rather Callie just stay home to take care of her. "Hi." She says flatly. "Hello. You must be Arizona. I have been talking to your wife about this situation but I would like to hear things from your perspective, if you don't mind." Arizona has already decided that she did not like this lady. "Yah, I guess."
Arizona wheels a little closer to where Callie is sitting scribbling away on pieces of paper. "How many hours a day to you think that you rely on that wheel chair?" Mary asks. Arizona looks confused. She had been expecting to be asked what activities she liked to do or something stupid. "Um…I'm not sure? A lot I guess. I don't have any other way of getting around." "Would you say that you have let the amputation take over your life?" Callie looks up a little surprised by the intensity of these questions. Caught off guard for the second time, Arizona struggles to come up with an answer. "I ah…well…I try not to but there is just so much I cant do that I was able to do before." Mary jots down a few notes making Arizona feel uncomfortable.
Mary flips through her notes that the office gave her reading a little bit more about this client. "I understand that you are a doctor. So is your wife. Do you plan on returning to that field of work once you are recovered?" "I hope I will be able to." "Are there any things you would like me to know about you before we begin to work together?" "Um…I don't think so?" "Who would you like to be your two emergency contacts?" Arizona thinks for a second before tapping Callie. "Do you think Mark would mind if I put him down?" "No I don't think he would." She answers back. "Then Callie Torres and Mark Sloan." Mary writes that onto the papers in her lap. "Who are your main physician/ physicians? I pretty much just need the doctors who can answer the most questions and send over your records if need." "Callie and Alex Karav." "Well I think I have everything I need. I will be back here at six tomorrow morning for our first day together." Mary stands up and shows herself to the door. "I will collect that paperwork from you tomorrow. Nice meeting both of you." Then the door closes behind her.
Callie looks up from the paperwork a little stunned. That was absolutely not what she had been expecting. "What was that?" Arizona asks equally as shocked. "Well I guess she likes to just get to the point." They both sit not knowing what to do before Callie gets back to the paperwork.
A loud buzzing sound echoes through the small bedroom. Arizona opens one eye and sees that it is still dark out. She hated waking up to a dark room. She rolls over to see Callie still sound asleep as the alarm clock rang loudly. "Callie." She says as she shakes her wife. She couldn't help but think that the alarm clock was a waste of money sense half the time it didn't even wake Callie up. "What?" She responds annoyed. "Its time for you to get up." Callie rolls away from her wife with her eyes still closed. She felt the cold air hit her bare arms and tugged the blankets tighter around her.
"At least turn off the alarm before it wakes up Sophia." Arizona says, ok with the idea of Callie skipping work and having a lazy day in bed. Callie hits the snooze button and they drift off to sleep again. Not five minutes later the offal sound fills the room again. "Callie just get up!" Arizona says without opening her eyes. "Ugh!" Callie says rolling out of bed and onto the floor. "It's so cold and early!" Callie wines in her husky morning voice. "Shhh!" Arizona says pulling the covers that were once wrapped around Callie closer to herself.
Remembering that Arizona had to get up too sense her nurse was coming at six Callie pulled the covers off of her wife. "No!" Arizona says when she feels the blanket ripped for her body. "You have to get up to shower before Mary gets here." Callie says pulling the wheel chair next to the bed. "I don't want to! She will just have to deal with me spending the day in bed, smelly." Callie laughs before resting her ice-cold hands on Arizona's bare shoulder. Blue eyes snap open. "Callie! Knock it off!" Callie laughs again amused. She grabs her wife's hands and pulls her to a sitting position. "Stop it! I don't want to move!" "I don't care. If I have to get up you do too." The brunette pulls Arizona to a standing position and the blond lowers herself into the chair. They take turns showering and getting ready for the day.
As Callie is drying her hair she hears the door open. "Cal, you ready to go?" Mark calls into the apartment. A second later he appears in the doorway of her bedroom. "Nope not yet we have to wait for the nurse to get here. "Where is Blondie anyway?" Callie points to Sophia's room and Mark walks over. "Hey." Mark says seeing Arizona snuggling his beautiful child. "Hey. Look its daddy! Say hi Soph!" Arizona says most of her sentence in a baby voice shaking the child's arm to look like she was waving. Mark goes over and takes the baby from her arms. He swings her up in the air making her laugh before hugging her tightly. "Hey baby girl. Do you want some breakfast? Of course you do!" Mark says matching Arizona's childlike tone.
A loud knock fills the room. "Cal, do you want me to get that?" Mark says loudly so that she will hear him over the blow drier. "Yah." She says back. He goes over to open the door. "Hello. I'm Mark Sloan, you must be the nurse." Mark says allowing the woman to come in. "Yes, I am Mary." The nurse walks in pulling a suitcase looking bag behind. She walks over and puts her coat on the coat rack. "We will begin every morning with exercises that will stretch out your residual limb." Mary says when Arizona rolls into the living room. "Ah…ok." Arizona gets so nervous around this new woman she never has room in her brain to protest. Callie walks out of her room ready to go. "Hi Mary." The stern woman nods her head in acknowledgement before pulling a multicolored yoga mat out of her bag. Mark smirks at Callie. God only knows what this woman will put her through today. "I will be back around five." Callie kisses the top of Arizona's head trying to ignore the pleading look she was being given. With Mark close at foot she leaves the apartment.
After fifteen minutes of the weirdest yoga Arizona could ever imagine she was helped off of the floor and into her wheel chair. She had already been told that the time she was spending in the chair would be cut to at least half it was before. Arizona's stomach grumbled loudly. "Is it ok if I make myself some breakfast?" Of course it was her house and she could do whatever she wanted but with this scary woman next to her she felt like a child. "Yes, you can have a break then we can get you up on crutches." When Mary turned away to look into her huge bag Arizona mouthed bad names at her and raised her middle finger. So much for being up to the task, she thought to herself.
Through out her whole day Mary seemed to nag her on everything she was doing. When she made herself a bagel for breakfast it was replaced with foods that would give her more energy like oatmeal and fruit. She was scolded on how she rolled her wheel chair and even told to do things herself when she asked for assistance.
After a few hours of "torture" Arizona finally snapped. "I can't reach the freaking sink I only have one leg!" The blond reaches from where she sits in her chair. Mary looks unfazed by this all, standing with her arms crossed towering over her. "Just hand me a wet paper towel like Callie does!" Arizona finds herself nearly in tears for some reason. She just could not take anymore of this woman. "Stand up and get the paper towel then." Mary stretches out her hand ready to help. The tears finally start to fall down Arizona's pale cheeks. Her body ached for all of the activity she had been doing all day long, her head throbbed from all of the reminders and scolds and her eyes stung from trying to hold back her emotions.
"You don't get it! I can't do this! I can't do so any of these damn things! Can you even just give me a brake?" The words come out of her mouth in a shaky yell as her tears fall faster and harder. "Yes you can. I wouldn't make you do it if I didn't know you could." Mary reaches down pulling up her right pant leg to reveal a shiny metal prosthetic limb. Arizona's jaw drops in a rather impolite way but she couldn't help it. "I-ah I didn't know. I-I'm sorry." The woman drops the pant leg to the floor again. "Don't be. Just know that when I push you its so that you don't become what I had become after I lost my leg. I want you to get back to your life again and to be happy. Now how about we try those crutches again? I bet it would be nice for Callie to see you on them when she gets home." Arizona nods her head discovering a lot of respect and appreciation for this woman.
"Hey, look at you go!" Callie says walking in to find Arizona wobbling around on crutches. Arizona looks up shooting her a dimpled smile. She was proud of herself. "You have a strong woman here Callie, just keep reminding her of that. Arizona make sure to fill your wife in on the exercises and stretches you should be doing." With that Mary walks out of their apartment. "So how was it? At about two you stopped sending me freaked out messages about how bad it was going and now you seem peppy?" Arizona chuckles a little. "I have to admit it started off…you could say a little shaky but I think I understand where she's coming from a little more."
Callie looks even more confused then she did before. "Ah ok. I forgot to tell you that Mer was asking about you today. She just wanted to know how you were doing and what you were up to." "That's nice what did you say?" "I told her about your PT and Mary." "Oh ok. How was she doing? I mean I have to admit she didn't look so good last time I saw her." Callie thinks trying to come up with less morbid way to say what she thought. "Ah…well she still doesn't look like her old self. She is horrifyingly skinny and looks like she will pass out from lack of sleep at any minute. So I guess not good." At the scared look of Arizona Callie mentally face palms herself. "That's horrible! What about Yang?" "Well she is talking more but not seeing patients yet. It seems like both of them are just around there to be together." "I think I should call them. Maybe have them over for diner? Do you think it's to late to call tonight?" Callie looks at her watch. "Its seven. Its up to you." "I think we should do it."
*Ding, Dong* Callie opens the door to find Cristina and Meredith. "Hi, Callie." Meredith says. They both walk in. Arizona uses her crutches to get into the living room to greet them. "Hi" she says. "Wow, crutches! That's great!" Meredith says walking over to her. "Thanks! I just started with them today." Arizona motions to the couch before handing the crutches to Callie and sitting down. Callie leaves the room to go eat diner with Sophia and Mark. She decided that Arizona needed some time to talk alone with people who really understood what she had gone through.
"H-how are you two doing?" She is immediately nervous when she scans both of them. Meredith looks like she had not slept, eaten or seen the sun for a month and Cristina had a look in her eye as if she had seen a ghost. "We are getting there." Mer replies immediately regretting her answer. "Sorry, that's what I have been saying to everyone for a while but it's just…impossible. It's too hard now. The nightmares and memories haunt me all the time!" Mer runs a shaky hand through her hair. "I-I-I get it. I get those too. You just need to keep going. Mer you-you look offal. Are you even eating or sleeping?" Mer looks down at her hands. "I-well I try, but you remember what we ate out there? I just can't do it anymore and sleep it just to painful. I wake up screaming all the time. If not me Derek. But now Owen wants Cris and I to go to some PTSD place before we can get our normal patent loads back. Its not fair." Arizona looks shocked at all that was said to her so fast. "Ah yah that does sound bad. But you cant just stop when it hurts. It hurts me but I have to keep eating and sleeping. Hell even getting up in the morning knowing that Lexie cant is an immediate blow but I don't let it stop me. We are lucky enough to have gotten a second chance. I am not going to waste that. But I also know there are ways that you can be helped. Like talking to a therapist or taking a natural sleep aid or doing something to distract yourself while you eat."
Mer looks over at Cristina who has not spoken a word the whole time. "I guess I will try those because I am really not sure how much more of this I can take." "Cristina, will you please talk to me? Let me know how you're feeling?" Cristina turns her head to face Arizona. That's a good sign. It farther then she was before. "Come on Cris, she knows what happened over there." Meredith encourages. "I-I'm tired. I can't do this anymore." "You can. I felt exactly like that but it slowly figures out. Of coarse I have those days where it just doesn't seem worth it to even get out of bed in the morning but you just have to get the will to make yourself do it. Also if I were you I would look into that PTSD place because I actually think it could really help. My brother had a friend who went to one of those and came back almost back to his old self." "I guess I will." Mer says. It is noticeable that she has a lot on her mind.
"Hey guys. I just wanted to see how everything is going." Arizona looks at the clock seeing that three hours had gone by with out her noticing. "Well we should really get going. But thank you so much for having us. You really helped us. Ill call you to tell you if we decide to go or not." Mer says not wanting to say everything in front of Callie. "Ok great!" Arizona calls from the couch. The rest of their night is uneventful. They fall asleep easily in each other's arms.
AN: I would really appreciate some feed back! And if you guys could spread the word a bit about my fanfic I would be forever grateful!