Chapter 3 - Coffee

The red digits of the alarm clock sitting on Arizona's nightstand cast a faint glow throughout her bedroom. She sniffed and threw another tissue onto the ground beside her, adding to the growing pile just as the numbers switched to 6 a.m. sending a shrill beeping, startling her even though she had been waiting for it. She slammed her hand down on the top of the clock, and crawled out of her bed with a stretch. The alarm meant that yesterday was over; today was a new day and she was going to forget everything that happened the day before. She relaxed into a moan as she turned the knob to her shower, sending hot water across her scalp and down her back, plastering blonde hair against her skin. Today was a new day.

Callie couldn't sleep. She hadn't been able to find Arizona once her legs finally started listening to her and she ran after her. By the time she got to the street, the blonde was long gone. The screen to her phone remained blank, the light in the corner taunting her with darkness. She had tried to call her best friend several times already that night, but her phone was off and sent her straight to voicemail. Huffing in frustration as her alarm rang through her bedroom, she slammed her hand down and stormed into her bathroom to get ready. She hated going to work without sleeping; it made her brain slow and her body even slower, both very bad characteristics for a surgeon.

Callie stumbled into the hospital and immediately walked towards the coffee cart where she usually met Arizona on the mornings they were both working. Her heart sank when she scanned the open atrium without spotting her best friend. After ordering both of their usual coffees, she moved towards the elevator.

Mark hit the call button from behind her before she could reach out and press it herself.

"Morning," he drawled as he pressed himself against her back.

She flinched and took a small step forward, putting distance between the two of them. "Morning," she said shortly. She followed the numbers at the top of the elevator with her eyes as they lit up in descending order, moving closer towards the ground floor.

"One of those for me?" He asked.

She held the coffee he reached for further away from him and glared into his playful expression. "No, this isn't for you," she spat.

"Whoa… okay. Got it." He raised his hands in surrender and took a step back. "You okay? What happened?"

Callie's lips pursed and she glared straight ahead. "Nothing."

The elevator door chimed, signaling its arrival. They both stepped in and pressed the lights to their respective destinations. Mark's eyebrows rose when Callie pressed the floor to peds instead of ortho.

"Oh… I see. You get coffee for blondie, but not the man who rocked your world last night," Mark teased.

Callie's head jerked to the side and she glared into Mark's eyes. "Mark, don't," she warned.

The elevator chimed and the doors opened. Mark stepped out and turned to look over his shoulder. "It's okay, Cal. I had fun last night, even if you did wish it had been Arizona, not me." He winked at her as the doors started to close.

She opened her mouth to argue but the doors closed before any words could come out. So she stood, silently stewing as the elevator continued its ascent to peds.

Arizona rolled towards the nurse's desk, picking up the pile of case files for that day. She yawned, not caring how ungraceful it was; she was exhausted. The worst part was that her day had only just started, and she already could barely hold her head up since she had skipped her usual morning coffee in an attempt to avoid Callie. She turned to roll towards her first patient's room, but stopped short as soon as she saw the elevator doors open and her best friend standing in the doorway. The raven haired surgeon stepped onto her floor, immediately locking eyes with her.

She saw that she was holding two cups of coffee and her heart broke. She brought me coffee? Why does she have to be so perfect literally all of the time? She turned and rolled into the first room she could find. A very confused little boy opened his eyes, rubbing them gently as his favorite doctor shut the door behind her and looked through the blinds in his room.

"Dr. Robbins?"

The blonde turned with a bright smile. "Good morning, Jake! I uhm, I just came to see how you were feeling," she said unconvincingly.

He looked at her, confused when a soft knock came at the door.

"Arizona? I brought you coffee…" Callie said, her smooth voice muffled by the door between them.

Arizona leaned against the door with her eyes shut tight.

A few seconds passed before Callie gave up and walked over to the nurse's station. She leaned against it, a brilliant smile on her lips. She tapped the surface of the counter gently to get the nurse's attention.

"Can I help you, Dr. Torres?" The brunette asked.

"Good morning, Rebecca." She smiled when the nurse's eyes widened briefly in surprise that Callie knew her name. "I was just wondering if you could give this coffee to Dr. Robbins for me? I can't seem to be able to find her."

The nurse hesitated as she looked around the desk at all of the paperwork in front of her. "I'm really busy right now, Dr. Torres," she said weakly.

"Oh, come on, Rebecca, you can do this for me," Callie's eyebrow rose and she smirked.

The nurse blushed and looked down at her desk again.

"Torres!"

Callie jumped at the sound of the all too well known booming voice. "Bailey!" Callie offered weakly as she turned to face her with a sheepish smile.

"What are you doing up here? You leave that poor girl alone and answer your damn pages! We've got a team of bikers coming in from a 5 car pileup on the highway." Callie's mouth dropped open. Bailey turned to leave, then paused and looked over her shoulder. "Well, come on! Go get your scrubs, they're eight minutes out! Move, Torres!"

Callie rolled her eyes as she started a jog to the stairs; today was going to be a long day.

Arizona was making her final notes from her morning rounds when one of the new interns stepped up to her and cleared her throat.

"Uhm, Dr. Robbins?" The intern squeaked, a nervous blush on her cheeks.

She turned her body to face the intern. "Yes? I'm sorry, I don't know your name. I don't think we've met yet."

"It's okay. I'm Brooks, Heather Brooks. I'm on Dr. Torres's service today and she asked me to come give this to you." The intern held up a cup of coffee.

The blonde smirked, but didn't move to take it from her. "That was very kind of you, Brooks, but you can tell Dr. Torres that I don't need any coffee." She turned to return back to her files, but paused when she realized the intern wasn't moving. "Is there something else I can help you with?"

"Uhm, it's just that Dr. Torres said I couldn't come back until you took it."

Arizona rolled her eyes. Of course Callie would do something like that. "Well, you can tell Dr. Torres that if I wanted a coffee, I'd get it myself. Thank you, Brooks." She turned and walked away from the helpless looking intern.

As Arizona hurried into her first surgery over an hour later, she noticed the intern from earlier standing outside of the scrub room. She paused when she saw that she was holding a cup of coffee again. "Brooks?"

The intern smiled. "Dr. Robbins! Dr. Torres wants me to wish you good luck on your surgery." She held out the fresh cup of coffee, offering it to her.

Arizona smiled briefly in return. "Thank you, Brooks. I'm sorry she has you doing this for her. Tell her I still don't need any coffee and to stop making you run all over the hospital."

The intern hesitated. "It's really no problem, Dr. Robbins. I'm happy to do it." She held out the coffee again, hoping that the woman would just take it already.

Arizona walked past her and into the scrub room. "Tell Dr. Torres to stop trying to give me coffee," she called over her shoulder as the door swung closed.

The surgery went perfectly; another tiny human was on their way to recovery. She took a deep breath and pulled her scrub cap off, stuffing it in her pocket. Sinking into the chair of her office, she closed her eyes and tried to shut off her still active mind. She almost instinctually pulled her phone out to ask Callie if she wanted to get lunch with her, but quickly set it aside when she remembered she couldn't.

It buzzed in her hand and the screen lit up with a message from Callie.

Lunch?

Arizona rolled her eyes and set the phone back down on her desk as it buzzed again.

Don't roll your eyes at me. Come on, I heard there's pizza today.

Arizona's eyes widened in surprise and she looked around to see Callie smiling at her from outside her office window. She huffed in frustration and opened the door to her office.

"Come on, Arizona, it's just lunch," she said as she stepped into her office.

Arizona closed the door behind her and set her hands on her hips. "Callie, you need to stop."

The harshness of her shortened name stung Callie through to her heart. "What? Arizona, it's just lunch… we have lunch together every day," she said nonchalantly.

The blonde ran her fine fingers through her hair and started pacing. "I know we do, and I know I missed coffee this morning, and that reminds me… really, Calliope? You can't just send your interns on errands all day. They're here to learn, not to be your waiter." The blonde was on fire, pain leaking through her voice. "But I'm sorry, I just can't… I can't be around you today. Why don't you just go ask Mark?"

Her heart broke as the puzzle pieces fell into place in her mind. She had been trying to convince herself that Arizona's distance had been for some other reason, but here it was… How could she make such a huge mistake? "Arizona," she croaked, tears burning the back of her throat. She reached out to touch Arizona's arm, but the blonde yanked it away before they could make contact.

"Just leave," she spat, unable to look in the direction of her best friend, "please." Tears were threatening to fall, but she refused to let Callie see them.

Callie hung her head and reached for the door. "Text me if you need me," she breathed, barely at an audible level before stepping into the brightly lit hallway.

Arizona shut the blinds to her office and sank into her chair, gentle sobs crashing over her.

It took nearly her entire lunch break to pull herself together as well as the whole box of tissues in her office. But, she had gathered herself and was back to being the perky, happy, and magical doctor her tiny humans needed. She finished her last surgery in record time, but was stopped by curious parents and their endless questions from leaving on time. It was nearly an hour after her shift ended by the time she stepped through the front doors of Seattle Grace, headed for her car to leave one of the longest and most exhausting days of her life behind her.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw Callie sitting at one of the benches in front of the hospital. She gathered her strength and looked straight ahead as she stormed purposefully past the Latina.

"Arizona, wait!" Callie called as she shot up and grabbed her arm.

Arizona tried to pry her arm from her best friend's grasp, but while she was faster than Callie, she would never rival her strength. "Callie, let me go," she begged.

"Not until you listen to me," she answered confidently. "Please, Arizona, all I'm asking is for you to listen."

Her blue eyes searched the ground, but she stopped resisting Callie's hold.

"I messed up. I made a huge mistake last night when I slept with Mark." Arizona cringed at the words and she fought back tears that she wasn't sure how she still had. "I shouldn't have done it, I'm still not sure why I did, but Arizona," Callie lifted Arizona's chin so their eyes met. "You have to believe me that I never meant to hurt you."

"You didn't hurt me," Arizona mumbled as a tear slipped down her cheek.

A lopsided grin pulled at Callie's lips. "I know you don't want me to think that I did, but I know you better than that." Callie turned so that their bodies were facing each other. "Arizona, I am so, so sorry. I hurt you and I hate that I did. But, please, talk to me," Callie paused, filling her lungs with air. "What's going on?"

Arizona's heart shot into her throat. It was racing, pumping blood through her veins faster than she was sure was healthy. She swallowed, trying to clear her throat to answer, but no words were forming in her brain… there were so many things she wanted to say, but just didn't know how.

"Please, Arizona. I'm worried about you and you've been doing nothing but avoiding me all day. You're hurting and I can't… I won't just stand back and watch you fall apart." She grabbed Arizona's hands, needing suddenly some amount of physical connection between them. "Please talk to me, Arizona. I need my best friend back… I need you back."

Silent tears ran down Arizona's cheeks, falling to the ground. She looked into the eyes of the woman she loved in more ways than she could have ever imagined and grimaced. The words were pressed against the back of her lips, begging to be let go. Her lungs filled with air, waiting for the screams that were building in the back of her throat to finally erupt out. She started shaking as she thought of actually telling Callie everything, all of the secrets, especially her true feelings. She couldn't take the pain of someone knowing again, not after the hell her life had become the last time. She had locked away those memories, moved on, but Kim's appearance had reminded her again of just how much it hurt; she wouldn't make it through that again, and she couldn't lose Callie, she meant too much. "I… I can't," she stuttered.

She dropped her hold on Callie's hands and spun around, begging her feet to carry her away from everything, from all the feelings, the lying, the secrets; she needed to escape.

Callie lunged forward, grabbing onto Arizona's arm and pulling her back into a strong embrace. Arizona fought her as sobs shook through her body, but Callie held on. She wasn't going to let her run away again; she didn't know exactly what was going on, but there was no way she was going to let someone she loved so much just vanish from her life. Slowly, Arizona sank into Callie's strong arms until her legs gave out.

They crumbled to the ground together, Callie not wanting to let go of the blonde for even a second. "You're okay, you don't have to say anything, just breath." She pulled Arizona to her chest and smoothed her hair, whispering to her softly.

"I…. I want to tell you… But… But I can't… I can't tell you." Arizona stuttered in between her stifled cries.

"Shh… it's okay, you're okay, I'm here. You can tell me anything, but I won't make you." Callie held Arizona impossibly closer until the tears stopped and she had stopped shaking. The sound of footsteps approaching startled Arizona away from Callie's embrace. Callie immediately felt the loss of having Arizona in her arms and reached out to hold her hands. Arizona stared at their entwined fingers and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

"How about we go enjoy a bottle of wine at my place?" Callie suggested.

The idea of having to go home and be alone suddenly sent Arizona's mind into panic, but the thought of having to answer any questions about why she had been acting so strange threatened to send her back into a sniveling mess all over again. She didn't know what to do. Callie's strong, yet unbelievably soft hand met her chin, lifting her head so their eyes met.

"I know you love wine. It'll just be you and me," she offered a supportive smile, "and I promise you don't have to talk about anything you don't want to."

Arizona's heart fluttered and a smile pulled at her lips as she nodded in agreement. She didn't know how, but somehow Callie always made things better. Running from her and forcing her out of her life for even just one day had been the most exhausting and terrible decision of her life. A huge feeling of relief washed over her, coming out as a deep sigh.

Callie stood up, lifting Arizona with her. She left her hand entwined in Arizona's, loving the still new, yet somehow familiar feeling of their physical connection. Neither woman said anything, but they didn't want to let go, so they walked hand in hand towards Callie's apartment across the street.

AN: Wow, you guys are incredible. Really… all of you! There are no words. Thank you so much for your reviews, and welcome to all the new followers!

Shout out to all the followers who I recognize from Awakened. I haven't left my baby, I have another chapter coming this weekend, I promise!

Also – shout out to Massi17, a fan from *Italy*! I can't believe I have readers around the world! So cool! :D

Another shout out to Tifus – your review made me laugh so hard. So simple, yet so profound… I loved it.