Hanging By A Moment
Hanging By A Moment
Paring: Callie/Arizona
Rating: M
A/N: We've arrived at the end. It's been an interesting ride to say the least. Thank you for all of your support.
Chapter 18:
It was a quiet Sunday in the Torres household. Carlos was away on business and Aria and Lucia were out shopping for the last details of Aria's graduation outfit. The only person still at the house was Callie who was in a deep sleep. It had been a horrible week for her. After ending things with Arizona she couldn't help but feel horrible about everything. She missed the perky blond. She realized just how much of a positive energy Arizona brought to her life. A really big part of her wanted that back. She missed the flirting, the kisses, and the simple pleasure of having Arizona's company. But she knew she couldn't be selfish. She needed to let Arizona go.
The bedroom door opened with a small, almost inaudible creek. Arizona made her way stumbling as quietly as possible through Callie's dark room. She climbed into bed next to Callie, trying to softly wake her up.
"Calliope, wake up." Arizona said in a low tone as she softly run a hand through Callie's back. "Callie…"
"What are you doing here?" Callie mumbled as she turned around to face Arizona.
"I came to see you." Arizona said. "I know you're leaving tomorrow and I wanted to say goodbye. Your room is a mess by the way."
"I know." Callie said with a chuckle. "I guess I never got around to cleaning it up."
"I'm going to miss you." Arizona said tucking a lock of hair behind Callie's ear.
"I'll miss you too." Callie said with a half smile.
They simply looked at each other for a while without exchanging any words. Arizona scooted closer to Callie; she finally closed the gap between them by taking Callie's mouth with hers. The kiss started slow, achingly so. Arizona moved to straddle Callie's waist never breaking the kiss.
"Arizona, what are we doing here?" Callie asked.
"What does it look like we're doing?" Arizona said before she took her shirt off.
"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Callie asked. "You know that this won't change anything, no matter how much I want to?"
"I know." Arizona said before she started kissing Callie again.
"Okay." Callie mumbled against Arizona lips.
"At what time are you leaving tomorrow?" Arizona asked, as she got dressed.
"I have to be at the airport at 6:30am." Callie said. "Why?"
"I was just curious." Arizona said.
There was an awkward silence as they both finished getting dressed. Their hair was still damp from a shower they had taken earlier; wet towels and dirty clothes painted Callie's bedroom floor.
"Your room is a mess." Arizona said. Now with the lights on the mess was way more evident.
"So you've mentioned…" Callie said. Arizona started picking up clothes and threw them in the laundry basket. "Stop. You don't have to do that."
"You're leaving tomorrow, you should leave this place clean." Arizona said.
"The cleaning lady is coming tomorrow after I leave." Callie said. "I already packed what I wanted to take. The rest is going on storage until further notice."
"And that's it?" Arizona asked.
"Yeah. Pretty much." Callie said. "Wait." She said as she looked through one of her drawers. "I got you something. I was planning on giving it to you a while back but then…stuff happened…" From the top drawer of her nightstand Callie pulled out a leather bound copy of Gray's Anatomy by Henry Gray. "Here" She said handing the book to Arizona.
"Where did you get this?" Arizona said running her fingers through the pages.
"A friend of a friend." Callie said with a shrug. "Its from 1893 so you should be careful with it."
"Callie, this is amazing." Arizona said.
"I- uh- I wrote you a note." Callie said. "It's between the pages, you should read it sometime…"
"What does it say?" Arizona asked nervously.
"What does it say?" Callie said mocking Arizona's voce. "You have to read it." She said with a chuckle. Arizona skimmed through the pages until she found a neatly folded envelope. "I mean don't read it while I'm in front of you."
"Fine. But you owe me." Arizona said closing the book. Arizona looked at Callie for a while. She really liked the brunette's features, she loved the way her long dark hair framed her face. She wanted to say something, anything to change things between them, to make Callie realize just how good they were together.
"Arizona…" Callie said with an uncomfortable laugh. "You're staring."
"You are very beautiful, Calliope." Arizona said.
"So are you." Callie said with a smile.
"You have no idea how much I'm going to miss you." Arizona said, her finger quickly catching a tear that had escaped her eye.
"I think I do." Callie said. "You're a special one, Arizona-like-the-battleship."
"You're an idiot." Arizona said with a small laugh.
"Come here." Callie said as she sat on the bed motioning for Arizona to join her at her side. Arizona moved to sit next to Callie a sense of dejavu invading her mind. "Listen, I know we are not together or anything but I want you to feel free to call me whenever. If you ever need something…anything, please don't doubt to call me. I'm going to still be here for you."
"Callie…" Arizona said. "That means a lot to me. It really does."
"I love you." Callie said dropping a kiss on Arizona's forehead.
"Can you promise me something?" Arizona asked.
"What's that?" Callie said drying an errand tear from Arizona's eyes.
"I need you to promise me that you'll remember me." Arizona said. "No matter what, promise me that you'll never forget about me."
"I swear." Callie said. "It's impossible to forget those dimples."
"I'm serious, Callie." Arizona said.
"So am I." Callie said. "I won't ever forget you. You mean too much to me. I'm lucky that you were a part of my life and even more so that you allowed me to belong to yours, even if it was for just a few months."
"Kick ass in New York." Arizona said resting her head on Callie's shoulder.
"Kick ass in college." Callie said wrapping an arm around Arizona's shoulder.
Callie was finishing up packing the last of the stuff she was going to take with her to New York when Aria opened the door of her bedroom.
"Are you busy?" Aria asked shyly.
"Not really." Callie said turning around to face her sister. "Why? What's up?"
"So this is it?" Aria said looking around Callie's bedroom. "You're finally leaving the nest for good?"
"Yup. That seems to be the case." Callie said.
"So…have a nice trip, okay?" Aria said. "Send pictures or whatever." She said quickly before she turned away to leave the room.
"Aria, wait." Callie called after her sister. "Is that all you wanted to say?"
"No…" Aria said turning around.
"And…" Callie said encouraging her on.
"I-I really hope things go really great for you in New York." Aria said. "And…I guess I wanted to apologize…"
"For what?" Callie asked taken aback by Aria's words.
"I know we've never been the closest of sisters and I'm sorry I've never really made any effort to fix that." Aria said. "Relationships go two ways and I guess I have some fault in us not being super close or anything…"
"Its okay, Aria." Callie said. "While we're on the subject…I guess I have to apologize too. Since I left home for college I never really made an effort to reach out to you. That was wrong of me. But…you know its not like either of us is dying we can still make up for all the time lost."
"I know." Aria said with a smile. "I'm glad you said that."
"You can come visit in New York anytime you want." Callie said.
"And I guess you can come visit in California too, if you're not being super lame or whatever." Aria said.
"I guess I'll try not to be super lame or whatever then." Callie said with a chuckle.
"I…" Aria started to say something but before any words came out of her mind regretted it. "Can I confess something and you promise you wont try to kill me?"
"Depends." Callie said with a shrug.
"Well I'm going to say it anyway because its something I can't have hanging on my conscience." Aria said. "…I was the one who told Arizona you were going to New York. I did it hoping that you two would break up. I thought that if you two broke up then I would have a chance with Arizona…"
"That's okay, Aria." Callie said.
"It is?" Aria asked.
"I mean, it was a shitty thing to do, but that wasn't why Arizona and I ended things." Callie said. "I knew you had feelings for Arizona but you never said anything so we never had the chance to talk about it."
"What's done, its done, right?" Aria asked.
"Right." Callie said. "I just want to say that I never meant to hurt you. I really love Arizona and what we had was very real. If I had known before I was already in a relationship with Arizona that you had feelings for her, things would have been very different."
"I'm sorry I acted like such a brat." Aria said.
"Hey, its okay." Callie said. "We live and we learn."
"I'm really glad we had this talk." Aria said.
"Me too." Callie said as she moved to give her sister a hug.
A few days after Callie left Miami, Arizona was thinking of her. She thought of calling her a few times just to make sure that everything was all right but every time she picked up the phone she thought up a reason not to call. And it wasn't like Callie was calling her or anything. One of the times she picked up the phone to call Callie she remember the note Callie had left in the book she had given her. Arizona had forgotten all about it until that very moment. She dropped her phone in her desk and moved quickly around to her bookshelf to find the book she had carefully stored there. Skimming through the pages she found the envelope, upon opening it she found the note written in Callie's neat handwriting.
My dearest Arizona like the battleship:
I can't even being to tell you how proud I am of you. I know this is the start of what I know will be a career filled with great achievements. I hope you approach this new step in your life with an open mind and an open heart. I can't wait to see you in your scrubs and you white lab coat saving lives and taking names. I have no doubt you'll be an excellent doctor. I hope you never forget the little people. I love you so very much. Please know that I am forever changed by you. You have meant a great deal to me. I am so grateful for the time I've been allowed to be with you. You haven't even left for college and I miss you already.
I'll love you forever, Dr. Robbins
Yours Sincerely
Calliope.
A/N 2:I'm grateful for every single one of your kind reviews and messages. For those of you asking, yes, there will be a sequel. I've been working on it so you can expect that in the next few days. Please let me know what you think of this last chapter. AND don't forget to let me know if you have any suggestions for the sequel. Much love to all of you!