Hanging By A Moment

Hanging By A Moment

Paring: Callie/Arizona

Rating: M

A/N: Here's another chapter! Just a couple more until the ending. Don't forget to leave a review!

Chapter 16:

Callie woke up in an unfamiliar bedroom. When she opened her eyes her first instinct was to look beside her to see who was there. All she saw was a mess of black hair. She knew the minute she entered Dani's apartment that she was making a mistake. It was like one of those things where you know you're about to do something terribly wrong but you can't seem to stop yourself. Flashes of the night before invaded Callie's memory; the way Dani's hand felt against her own when they walked out of the bar, the sloppy kisses they exchanged on Dani's sofa, Dani's fingers pressing against her skin and how unfamiliar Dani's skin tasted against her mouth. Arizona came to her mind and shame and regret invaded her body. She slipped out of the bed and got dressed as quietly as possible.

"When am I seeing you again?" Dani asked just when Callie thought she was going to make it out of the bedroom safely.

"I don't know, Dani." Callie said. "I'll call you."

"Okay." Dani replied sleepily before falling back asleep.

Callie didn't go to work that morning; she called in sick and just stayed in her room all day. Around mid afternoon Dani called and she ignored the call. Dani was a nice enough girl but she couldn't bear to face what she had done. She felt as if picking up Dani's call would make things even worse. Her emotions were a mess. One moment she felt guilty for sleeping with Dani, she felt as if she had betrayed Arizona and then she was angry at the whole situation. Arizona had broken up with her and that was that.

A few says went passed and Callie hadn't heard from Arizona. Many times Callie would pick up the phone to make an attempt to fix things but halfway through she would just give up and hang up. That afternoon Callie was distracted at work thinking about Arizona when her phone started buzzing with an incoming call from Arizona.

"Hey." Callie said.

"Yeah? Can we talk?" Arizona asked not in the mood for pleasantries.

"Sure." Callie said with a ray of hope. "Want to meet somewhere?"

"Can you go to that Mexican place we went the other day?" Arizona asked. "I'm already on my way."

"Sure." Callie said. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Here" Arizona said waving to Callie. She had already saved a table at the fairly busy restaurant.

"How are you?" Callie said. Things were awkward, she didn't know the proper way to greet the blond.

"Fine." Arizona said.

"You wanted to talk?" Callie asked after she sat down in front of Arizona.

"Yes." Arizona said. "I- the other day…I may have overreacted. I was right to be upset and angry with you but I shouldn't have treated you the way I did." Arizona said. Callie was both incredibly happy at Arizona's words so very sad. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that, if its okay with you of course, I want to take back what I said and I really want us to give this thing a shot. Sure there'll be challenges with us being apart but I think we can make it work. You'll be closer in New York. I can come visit on weekends or you could come visit…" Arizona was caught up in the excitement of things maybe getting a bit more serious between them that she failed to notice that Callie was yet to say anything.

"Stop." Callie said. "Stop. I need you to stop talking for a minute."

"I know, baby." Arizona said. "I messed up and I acted like a child but I'm sorry. I promise nothing like that will ever happen again. Next time we'll talk things through." Arizona reached over to softy peck Callie's lips but Callie was almost unresponsive.

"Before you go on I need to tell you something." Callie said. She contemplated the thought of not saying anything. She wanted to be with Arizona so badly that she thought of not saying anything about Dani but that wouldn't be fair to Arizona. She didn't want to live holding that secret constantly fearing about Arizona finding out.

"What's wrong?" Arizona asked concerned.

"Something happened the other night." Callie said.

"Is everything okay?" Arizona asked with a nervous chuckle.

"I slept with someone." Callie said. "After you ended things I went to a bar and I met this woman and we-."

"Stop." Arizona said. "I don't want to know anything more." She stood up, turned around and headed for the exit.

"Wait." Callie said running after Arizona. She finally caught up with her at the parking lot. "I'm sorry. I know I fucked up. But you broke up with me, I thought it was over for good."

"So what? I'm supposed to say its okay because your feelings were a little bit hurt?" Arizona asked. "We have a fight and the first thing you do is sleep around?"

"I'm sorry." Callie said. "It was wrong of me but at least I'm being honest about it."

"You don't get points for that, Callie!" Arizona almost yelled.

"Arizona, please. I love you and you love me and I know we can get pass this." Callie said.

"No." Arizona said. "I gave you something. Something you so easily gave away to the next person. Who was she?"

"I don't know…" Callie said with her head down.

"You don't know?" Arizona asked.

"No, I don't know." Callie said now looking at Arizona. "We met that same night. All I know is that her name is Dani and she's studies sociology or psychology. I don't know."

"How would you feel if it was me?" Arizona asked. "How would you feel if I slept with some random girl I didn't even know the same day we broke up?"

"Its different, Arizona." Callie said. "You left me. I wanted to try to make things work, something I never ever do but I wanted to do with you and you left me. So no it's not the same."

"That's a very cheap excuse. Even for you." Arizona said.

"I regret it. I wish I never did it but there's nothing I can do to take it back. If I could I would, you've got to believe that." Callie said. The sincerity in her eyes was too much for Arizona to handle. She was so angry and hurt by what Callie did that she was unable to think clearly.

"I expected much more from you, Callie." Arizona said. "All of our time together…did any of it meant anything to you?"

"Of course it meant something to me." Callie said. "You mean something to me. I messed up. I made one mistake."

"Callie, I love you." Arizona said looking directly into Callie's eyes. "I don't think you understand just how much I love you and how much I want to just pretend you never said anything. I want to pretend everything is fine and that we have it all figured out…"

"We don't have to pretend." Callie said. "We can get over this."

"I need some time." Arizona said. "You need to give me some time."

"Take all the time that you need." Callie said feeling a shred of hope.

A few days had passed and Arizona was yet to make an attempt to contact Callie. She told Teddy about what happened in the restaurant but didn't get into too much detail. She missed Callie so badly that a part of her wanted to call her to tell her that she wanted everything back to normal but a bigger part of her knew that that would be a mistake. Everything around her made her think of Callie. She wanted things back to what they were but that wasn't possible. At least for now. She was still so angry that Callie slept with someone else. Every time she closed her eyes images of some random woman touching Callie's body the way she used to tortured her. She was supposed to be the only one allowed to touch Callie in such an intimate way, just like she couldn't imagine anyone touching her the way Callie had touched her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Teddy asked from beside Arizona. They were both working on a final project for one of their classes. Teddy had been watching Arizona closely and she knew that the blond had something in her mind.

"Not really." Arizona said sounding defeated.

"You can talk to me, you know?" Teddy said.

"I know, Teddy." Arizona said. "I'm just still so angry."

"I know. I would be too." Teddy said. "I still think you should talk to her. If you love her you should try to fix things."

"Don't. Don't try to defend her." Arizona said.

"I'm not." Teddy said. "I'm on your side. I just think that you should give it a chance. Not for her but for you. You'll regret it later on if you don't."

"Let's not talk about that right now." Arizona said stubbornly.