AN: I'm still deciding where to go after this story. I keep coming back to the surfer story, maybe a Hollywood type story, sports story? I need ideas and what you might want to see. It would really help!

Chapter 22

Monday, October 13th

Callie's POV

I was standing back to look at the long lines forming inside and around the clinic. Bailey was sure to have her hands full but I'm here to help with whatever I can. Our camp received the packs of vaccines last night and no one was wasting time to get it.

A set of arms sneaked their way around my waist and connected at the front. It could only be one person.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I came to help out with the crowd."

"I thought you sent me to do that?"

"I decided to join the movement."

"Is that what this is? A movement?"

"Eh…"

I turned around in Arizona's embrace and rest my hands on her shoulders. "Things are looking up around here."

"They are." She smiled and leaned in to meet my lips. When our lips were locked together, Arizona picked me a few inches off the ground and twirled us around. "Wha….ahhhh!" I held onto the back of neck as her hands supported my hips.

When we stopped, our eyes met and love overpowered my emotions. I moved my eyes down to the bandage that still covered her forearm. I slid my hand down her shoulder and across the healing wound. "I'm glad you're here." I tucked in a piece of fallen blonde hair back into place before repositioning my hands.

"I'm glad I'm here too. And I'm glad my mother is healthy and happy as well." We continued to look into each other's eyes before she spoke again. "I'm not happy she keeps bugging me about this wedding thing though."

"Uh, you should be concerned; it's very important Arizona." I leaned back and covered my mouth as if I was highly offended.

"We have plenty of time to figure it out." She smiled back which urged me to go in for another kiss.

"Robbins! Torres! Let's get this going." Bailey waved for us to come inside the clinic.

"Duty calls." Arizona began to walk away but stopped and held out her hand towards me. I intertwined our fingers before walking into the clinic.

Arizona's POV

Hours pasted as Callie and I sat inside the clinic, distributing vaccines and first aid kits to the different families from our camp. I've seen some of these people around when I've gone to get food a few times. Some of the families seemed pitiful and almost homeless. I understand our troops have to be taken care of, but so does our family. All these people who lined up from this camp are what are left of the west coast and that made them family.

As I was packing up a bottle of Tylenol for an older man, a teenaged girl and what looked like her little sister walked up to Callie. Their clothes weren't the worst I've seen today, but they weren't the best. The little girl had a dirty dress top and pair of khaki pants with holes all up the side. The teen had a pair of running shorts with a black tank top, even though it was black, you could see the dirt on it. I tuned into the conversation between them and Callie.

"Hey, is it just you two?" Callie caught herself before she brought up any touchy subject.

"Yeah…" The teen held onto the little girl in front of her. "…it's just us."

"Are you two allergic to anything?"

"No, not that I know of."

"Okay, I'm just going to inject the vaccine into your shoulder. How does that sound?"

"It sounds great." The teen seemed happy but the little girl had fear written all over her face. "What do you say Ashley?" When she looked down to her little sister, she clinched tighter onto her stuffed rabbit.

Callie slid out of her chair and got down on both knees to equal the height between them. "I promise it won't hurt much. It's a little prick and your muscle will feel tingly then it might be sore, but only after I give you the shot."

The little girl stared at Callie as she hid behind her sister's arm.

"I'm sorry, she's not usually this shy. Ashely, you have to get this shot."

"It's fine." Callie squinted and noticed the girl staring at her glove-covered hands. She looked down and noticed her plastic ring was visible through the clear latex. "You like my ring?" she asked.

The little girl nodded in response.

"It's a very cool ring." Callie took her gloves off and then her ring. She held it up so the girl could see it better. "How about I make you deal? If you let me give you the shot, I'll let you have my ring."

When the girl didn't respond, the sister edged her forward. "Ashley? How does that sound?" The little girl stepped from behind her sister and nodded.

"Alright, sit right here." Callie patted the stool and the girl sat down.

Why would she do that? That ring meant something to me and I hoped it meant something to her.

Callie put on another pair of gloves before cleaning the girl's shoulder. She picked up the needle and the girl flinched.

"I promise it's not as bad as you think, sweetie." She paused a second before sticking the needle in and pushing the vaccine into her muscle. The little girl screamed but stopped as soon as the needle was out. She looked at her arm then up to her sister.

"We told you wouldn't be that bad squirt."

The girl rubbed the Band-Aid that Callie placed over her shoulder. The sister sat down and was wrapped up, ready to go in record time.

Callie took off her gloves again and removed her ring to hold it up to the kid. "Now, you have to take very good care of this ring because it means a lot to me okay?"

She nodded.

"You don't have to give her the ring if it's special to you." the older one said.

Callie looked to me and I made no effort to look away, but instead look disappointed. "It's fine, really." She handed the girl her ring and sent them on their way.

"Why would you do that?" I asked after they left.

Callie sighed heavily to herself. "You promised me a real ring anyways, Arizona."

"Yeah, but that one meant a lot to me. It wasn't just a toy; there was so much more to it than that."

She turned to shelter our conversation from the people. "Look, I see you're upset, but can't we talk about this later?"

"Sure, later." I said it sarcastically and I could tell Callie didn't approve from the snap of her gloves.

I continued to work hard to keep my mind off the argument I knew we would be having later.

Tuesday, October 14th

We worked well into the next day, but I didn't complain. I stayed awake to help Bailey through the last dozen camp members since Callie left a few hours earlier. She didn't want to leave but I told her to go after I saw her dozing off.

I stood behind Bailey as she gave the very last patient, an older lady, the vaccine. Once she was packed up and sent away, I sat down in front of the doctor.

"So Doc…"

"What Arizona?" She looked at me with tired in her eyes.

"There's only one more person who needs this vaccine."

"Oh you go on, Arizona. I'm perfectly capable of giving myself a shot."

"You've been working hard to keep this camp at its healthiest. Let someone else take care of you for one second." I slipped on a pair of gloves and got one of the needles ready. I looked at Bailey, waiting for her to roll up her sleeve.

I began to wipe off her shoulder. "Callie gave away her ring."

"The one you proposed with?"

"Yeah. She gave it to some little girl after she got the vaccine."

"Well that was sweet."

"That ring was important to us though." I injected the medicine and watched Bailey squint in pain. The stuff did have a bad soreness to it afterwards.

"I'm sure it meant a lot to her too. There are always two sides of the story, maybe she felt like it was the right thing."

"Ugh, you sound like my mother."

"Yeah, well…go get some rest Robbins. And thanks." She rolled down her sleeve and went to check on some of the patients she had.

I sighed to myself before grabbing my bag and heading towards the hotel.

I stood in front of mine and Callie's room trying to think of what I would say. When nothing came to me, I moved down one door and knocked.

"Honey? It's two o'clock in the morning. What are you doing here? Is something wrong, did…"

"Mom, everything's fine. Can I come in?"

"Of course." My mom opened the door further to let me in. I sat down on the hard carpet before spreading all my limbs out and lying completely flat. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know."

"Is it Callie?"

"It's always Callie, mom. Sometimes I don't know what's going on. She loves me, she doesn't, she wants me, and then she's mad at me."

"It's called a relationship. You're going to have ups and downs in a relationship."

"I guess." I stared up at the ceiling.

"And you can't run away from it so whatever you're running away from in that room, you need to confront it. You can't run away from your problems, Arizona."

"Gah, I know mom." I sat up and looked at her sitting on the bed across from me. When I gathered up enough courage, I stood up and grabbed my bag to leave. "Thanks, mom."

"Anytime dear."

I left my mom's room and went to stand in front of our door again. When I finally found the calm and collected I was looking for, I turned the knob. I opened it to find Callie sitting up with an old medical magazine Bailey gave her.

"Hey, I was wondering when you were coming back. Did you finally see everybody?"

"Yeah, everybody has the vaccine now. What are you still doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep without you, you should know that."

I laid my stuff down in the chair and sat at the edge of the bed. Without turning around, I asked Callie the question that's been running through my mind. "Why did you give your ring away?"

"Arizona…let's just get some rest and we can talk later."

"I want to talk about it now." I managed to keep my voice at a soft tone, almost like I was hurt. I was hurt.

"You saw how those two girls looked; they didn't have parents or anything."

"That still doesn't give you the right to give away the ring I proposed to you with."

I could hear her sit the book down but remained on the bed. "You said you would get me a real one."

"So, that ring was more than a toy. It represented the love and commitment in our relationship."

"That's just it; it's a toy. We don't need a toy to say we're committed or that we love one another. Our relationship is real and we don't need a plastic ring to represent it. We don't even need a real ring to show it. I'm happy just knowing I get to fall asleep to you very night and wake up in the same spot." She crawled down the bed and began to massage my neck. She placed a soft kiss on one side and followed up with another, making a line down my shoulder.

"I guess you're right."

"You know I am. So why don't you just come and get in bed with me?" She nipped the tip of my ear before leaning back. I was so tired, my body started to follow her, eventually causing me to plop back with my legs still dangling off the end.

"You are very persuasive." I leaned my head back to see her slipping her feet under the covers.

"I know." She added a wink with her response.

Once I was snug under the covers, I curled up to Callie's side.

"Did you see their clothes? Arizona, how can so many people look like that and we have this wonderful hotel with food and clothes…?"

"We have privileges, I admit it, but I do want to help out more."

"How are we supposed to do that? We may have privileges, but in this situation, it isn't much anyway. We have what we need to survive."

"I know. I just wish…" I took a deep breath but I didn't want to talk anymore. Callie knows me well enough to know I need every hour of sleep because I get up early so she didn't say anything else.

I heard soft snores start up before I could fall asleep which isn't normal. I always fell asleep before Callie, but there were so many things running through my head, I couldn't find sleep.

I slowly slid out of bed and avoided anything that would cause noise. Of course, it didn't matter, Callie would hear me anyway.

"What are you doing?" She finally stirred awake and questioned me.

"I uh, I'm going outside to get some air. I just have a lot on my mind."

"Doyou want to talk about it?" I saw her begin to sit up.

"No, no, it's fine. Go back to sleep."

"Is this about the ring? Arizona, I…"

"No, it's not about the ring. I'll be back soon." When I got my shoes on, I stopped by Callie's side and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

Out on the patio, I stood alone and looked up into the sky. The dark blanket of sky mixed with grey clouds as the white light from the moon shined through. I knew that I had to get out of this or I had to fix it. Maybe I was meant to die fighting in El Paso. Maybe I was supposed to go with my brother. Maybe I was meant to die on that rooftop in Georgia. No. I lived for a reason and I feel that reason is to save these people. No one else seems to care. I have to do it.

I couldn't stand there anymore so I started to run. I'm not sure why I was running, but I found myself jogging out of the patio area and into the streets. I passed the clinic, the supply tent, and then the apartments where my mom was staying. After I passed the apartments, I came across an old school that I've never seen before. Behind the building, I could see generator lights glare onto the school's football field. I walked closer to the gates that surrounded it and realized it wasn't a football field anymore. Covering the field and stands were tents, hundreds of tents. Everyone was so close together and there were portable toilets placed between them. I covered my nose when a wrenching smell reached my nose. I looked down the fence and saw a heaping pile of trash along with old torn clothes and blankets that have seen too many days.

"Oh my god…" I looked into the bleachers and saw some families still up hanging clothes and sweeping the rubbish away from their tent. This is awful. Why are these people living like this?

I decided I had seen enough and ran back to the hotel, stopping again at the patio before going in. Tomorrow…I'm going to do something about this tomorrow.

I drug my feet through the room until I was in the bathroom. The rag I washed off with last night was still lying on the sink edge. I soaked it in some water before wiping my face. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed how tired I already looked. A few less hours of sleep wouldn't be so bad, especially after what I saw.

I grabbed a blanket from the dresser and sat down in the chair across form the bed then took out a notebook from my bag. Sketches and ideas swallowed the paper as I tried to figure out what was next for our camp.

Later that morning…

I had handwritten letters scattered across my lap and pen marks all over my hands. My eyes were getting ready to close but were interrupted by the great awakening of Callie Torres. It started with a yawn and stretch before she sat up and scratched her head then rubbed her eyes.

"Good morning. What are you doing over there?"

"Callie…"

"Did something happen last night?"

"I went for a run last night… or earlier this morning and you wouldn't believe what I saw. The school's football field is covered with tents. We're talking about hundreds of tents everywhere. Toilets were placed between them and their landfill is no more than 20 yards from where they sleep." I stood up and began to illustrate how crowed it was by moving my arms around in front of me.

"That sounds horrible."

"It is. And I stayed up and wrote these letters to our captain and some sketches of what we could do. We could build a place for these people to stay or we could set up bigger tents, something!"

"You stayed up all night?"

"That's not the point." I began to ramble on about all of my ideas.

"Arizona…stop. We can't do all of this. I told you we're barely surviving ourselves. Where are we going to find the supplies and food for these people?"

"That's what I'm saying; we can cut the rations and possibly get more supplies from the states the guys are clearing out."

"Why?"

I moved closer to Callie and lowered my voice. "I told you why, for these people."

"No, I mean why? Why do you feel like you have to save the universe?"

"I'm going to need help, it wouldn't just be me." I was taken aback by Callie's sudden attitude change.

"It is just you, Arizona. Everybody just wants to get through the day in this place, but you're always finding something wrong and you have to fix it. You can't let things just take their course." She began to move her hands around furiously.

"I'm trying to make things better for us here! Can't you see that?" My voice grew louder and louder.

"No! You're trying to make it better for everybody else! I hardly get to see you anymore. When you're not with me, you're out there with the guys doing…who knows what. How about trying to make things better for us?"

"You saw what these people are going through! You gave your ring away to that girl because she was so pitiful and sickly looking."

"So it comes back to the ring?" She grabbed a towel went into the bathroom.

"Callie, I didn't mean…" The door was slammed in my face before I could finish.

I went to knock on the bathroom door when another one came from across the room. It was followed by more various knocks. "I'm coming."

At the opened door were Jo and Alex.

"Hey, what's up?"

Alex stepped inside. "Robbins, the captain wants to speak with you."

"Ugh, what did I do?"

"No, it's good, I promise. Come on." Alex took my arm and pulled me out onto the patio. Gathered there were Jackson, Owen, Teddy, Mark, and then Alex. "The captain wants to speak to all of us actually."

"Alex, I don't have time for this…" Owen started.

"Yeah, me either." I replied.

Jo stepped up next to my ear. "You want to hear this, trust me."

"I'll drive us there, let's go." Alex motioned for us to follow.

"Whoa, right now?" Jackson pointed to the ground.

"Yes. I told you this is an urgent matter."

Jackson began to scoot me forwards. "Stop, I can't go without Callie. We were just…well, we were in the middle of something."

"I'll handle Callie." Jo helped Avery push me towards the hotel entrance.

I turned to just Jo. "No, you don't understand. We were fighting and if I left without telling her, she'd kill me."

"I'll tell her where you went." She finally managed to push me into Karev's truck.

I sighed to myself and went along for the ride. The Captain's tent wasn't too far from the supply tent which made me think, but not for long before the vehicle stopped and everyone unloaded.

We looked like a secret seal team walking into the giant tent and grouping around a small desk at the back. A huge chair was turned around to face the opposite direction.

Owen stepped up first. "Sir?"

The chair turned around and there was sitting our Captain, Preston Burke. "Hey, guys." We all saluted but he motioned for us to be at ease. "I have extremely satisfying news."

"And what's that?" I asked sarcastically.

"Arizona Robbins…you're exactly who Iwanted to see and the one who really picked this team up, put them together."

I worked my way through the crowd. "Listen, sir, I've seen the state in which some parts of our camp are in and I have these plans to fix them up. People are living in poverty inside these camps and I don't understand why."

"You wouldn't have to worry about that much longer. This group has been requested specifically by the President and his service. They want the very best team up there and it's very clear, from Arizona's actions, from all of your actions, that we are the best. You guys will be leaving in the morning for Washington D.C."

I stood motionless, not knowing what to say.

Alex came up and patted me on the back. "I agree with Robbins, we do have a duty to protect and take care of this camp."

"A small camp in Amarillo, Texas is nothing compared to protecting the President of the United States and you guys will do your duty."

"Will the others from our group get to go?" Avery asked.

"Here is the list I have from your group of people who I understand will go." He grabbed a piece of paper and began to list off names. "Owen Hunt, Teddy Altmen, Arizona Robbins, Tim Robbins…"

"Tim's gone." I said real quickly and quietly.

"Okay then… Arizona Robbins, Callie Torres, Aria Torres, Derek Shepherd, Meredith Grey, Jackson Avery, April Kepner, Alex Karev, and Jo Wilson."

"What about Mark Sloan and Lexie Grey?"

He looked down the list again. "Yes. Mark Sloan, Lexie Grey, and…Miranda Bailey."

I really didn't think they would send Bailey because so many people needed her here, but she is the best. "What about my mom?"

"She wasn't requested."

"Well…" I started to laugh sarcastically, "I'm not going anywhere without her." I crossed my arms and leaned to one side.

He looked over the rim of his glasses and marked a few things out. "I guess Tim's spot is open for her." He stood up and walked around the desk so he could get a good look at us. "And I'll be going of course. They'll send in a new crew to take over things here."

"We can't just leave things the way they are here, who knows what could happen." I was trying to fit my argument in somehow.

"I'm sure the new team is open to suggestions or ideas you have Miss Robbins. As for now, you guys need to pack up your things." He walked away into a different part of the tent.

Owen fumbled with his hands before breaking an awkward silence. "Okay, guys. You heard what he said. I know we want to stay here with our people, but it is our duty."

Back at the hotel, Alex and I were met with our girls at the entrance.

"Hey." Callie remained to herself while Alex received a celebratory hug and kiss.

"Hey." I moved forward and opened my arms. Relief flooded me when Callie wrapped her arms around me and squeezed.

She began to talk with her head hanging over my shoulder. "Jo told me what's going on. We're going to Washington?"

I pulled my head back and looked into her eyes. "The President wants us, Callie."

"Pretty fancy."

"I just hate leaving this place without getting my ideas out there."

She nodded her head slowly. "I know, but maybe the new team will look into it."

"I hope so." I stepped away from Callie and walked around awkwardly, trying to think of what I needed to take with me and what needed to be left at the hotel." I noticed Callie stopped to talk with Jo before she went towards our room with her head down and hands in her pockets.

The President requested us and we're leaving for Washington in the morning. Maybe this is a chance to get America back on its feet.

Review so I know what you think! I don't know what you liked unless you say…

Also, how about some Scandal crossover? I don't really watch the show, so I don't know what's going on there but I thought it would be something you guys would like to see. Yes?