Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story line.
TGIT! I really wish Shonda would really use Jessica's pitch and make a kidnapping happen! I would love to see how they'd handle that. Not sure what I'd want to see more, Callie, Arizona or Sofia getting kidnapped! But I am sure it would be a very interesting story to tell!
Oh well, on with the story. Are you guys still with me?!
Chapter 87
"Oh god, I'm so tried." Arizona said, pulling her luggage behind her as she walked into their house. It was past 11 p.m on Sunday night and they had just returned home from Miami after a four hour layover in Chicago due to stormy weather. "I just want to lay in our bed and fall asleep in your arms." They had planned on returning home Saturday so they could avoid feeling like this, but after Callie's parents basically begged them to stay one more day, they reluctantly gave in and did just that.
"Me too... well except I want to fall asleep while you're holding me." Callie said, walking behind her. "I think I could almost cry just thinking about having to get up for work in the morning." She groaned.l
"Lets quit." Arizona said, leaving the luggage in the middle of the room and flopping down on the couch.
"I wish." Callie said, following suit.
"Seriously, Callie. Let's quit." Arizona said, looking over at her wife lying on the opposite couch. She was totally being serious about it. "We have money, more money than we ever know what to do with. We can quit and just sit at home and pop babies out. We can keep the clinic of course and let Teddy handle everything. Hell I'll give her doctors pay."
"Whoa, you've really thought about this huh?" The brunette laughed.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it every Monday morning. And even more so now." She said, rubbing her stomach.
"Arizona, we can't quit." Callie knew her wife would regret quitting eventually.
"Why not?"
"You're thirty-two years old. Your career is just getting started." Callie said, sitting up on the couch.
"I know that, but my life's just getting started. We work twelve hour days sometimes Callie. I don't want our baby to know the daycare worker or my mom better than us. Think about it, if we work ten to twelve hours a day like usual, we'll only see our baby three to four hours a day and that's if he or she goes to bed late. I don't want that."
"Neither do I." Callie knew her wife was right, but she couldn't see her wife giving up her whole career she has worked her whole lifetime for. "Arizona. You've put your whole heart and sole into this clinic."
"Yeah, and look what all I've accomplished since I've been a pediatrician. Some people wait a whole lifetime to accomplish what I've done in a few years. Hell, I won the Carter Maddison at age thirty-one. Callie, I am not only the youngest but I'm the only one ever to win with a pediatricians degree. That feat alone is nearly impossible. What more is there to strive for besides raising our babies?"
"I know babe. I'm not taking anything away from you, you're absolutely amazing at what you do. But can you tell me that you honestly would give that up just to stay at home?" Callie asked, getting up to help her wife off the couch.
"I wouldn't let my license die. I could work a little every year to keep them up, so I can come back anytime I want." Arizona said, taking Callie's hands in hers.
"I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me you would give it all up today to stay at home with our kids."
Rubbing circles over her wife's hands with her thumb, Arizona thought about it for a couple of moments. "I would." She said, after weighing her options.
"Okay." Callie nodded.
"You wouldn't be mad if I were to quit?"
"You're asking me if I'd be mad because you want to stay home and take care of our baby?" She said, brushing her wife's loose hair out of her face. "I'd rather have you home with our baby than anyone else, not taking anything away from your mom." They had discussed Barbara keeping their baby when while they worked when they were in the process of discussing having a baby the first time. "I wouldn't have to worry myself to death when I leave the house and our baby's crying because it wants one of its mommies to stay home or when it's sick. It would ease my mind a lot knowing you'd always be there, but I think this is a conversation we need to have a little further down the road. When we've both had some time to think about it." She wanted time for both of them to really think about that and if in a few months Arizona still felt this way, she would be on board one hundred percent.
"Okay." Arizona agreed, leaving it at that for now. She knew Callie was just wanting her to take time and really think about this, so that's what she was going to do. "Let's go to bed, we'll unpack tomorrow after work."
"Gladly." Callie said, being led upstairs by the blonde.
They were just getting snuggled in bed when Arizona heard the doorbell ring followed by a loud pounding on the door. "What the hell?" She raised up.
"It's past midnight. Who the hell is at the door?" Callie said, getting up and looking out the window of the bedroom. "Damn it to hell." She growled, pulling on her robe.
"Who is it?"
"Fucking Mark." She said, tying the robe tightly around her. She loved him dearly, but he always had the worst sense of timing lately.
"Do not answer it Callie. He's a grown damn man, it's not up to you to put his life back together."
"I know.. but he was there and helped me pick up the pieces so many times in the past, Arizona." Callie sighed, stopping at the door. "I'm going to see what he wants and then send him on his way. I'll be back in a minute." She said, leaving the room.
Arizona flopped back down on the bed, grumbling under her breath. She loved Mark, she really did. Especially after he stepped up for them after the attack a few years ago. But lately he had been that pushy and needy and annoying family member you never wanted, even before he cheated on Lexie a few days ago. It felt like the only time Mark needed something from Callie lately was when his life was in a tailspin and it pissed her off.
She laid there in bed a few minutes, watching the car lights reflect off the ceiling in their bedroom as they drove down the streets. Listening, she heard Callie and Mark's muffled talking carry all the way upstairs so it must have been getting a little heated. Sighing, she rolled over to check the time. Callie had been downstairs for about five minutes, but soon Arizona watched the clock tick on and on and on until her wife had been gone for over fifteen minutes. It was now past one and the blonde was solely pissed off at Mark because of the bitchy, rude and arrogant way he's been with people the last month or so and she was tired of it.
Walking downstairs, Callie grumbled to herself all the way to the front door. Unlocking the bolt, she slung open the door. "Bout damn time." She heard the man as he walked passed her.
"Umm come in." She said, still standing by the door looking blankly out to her yard. "What are you doing here this late Mark?" She asked, closing the door.
"I saw Teddy earlier and she said you would be home today. But you weren't, because I stopped by earlier. And you're home now so I need to talk stuff through. I need YOU to talk me through." He said, walking into the kitchen to find some food.
"Umm help yourself." Callie said, after he was already pulling out condiments from her fridge. "You know it's late and my wife is upstairs waiting on me so we can go to bed. We do have to work tomorrow you know."
"What? She can't go to sleep without you?" He scoffed while making himself a sandwich.
"Mark, it's none of your business if she can or can't. I want to go to bed with my wife. So tell me, what are you doing here?" Callie crossed her arms as she waited for an answer.
"I.. need your help win Lexie back." He stated like it was the obvious answer.
"You're outta luck. I already told you no."
"Callie. You have to help. I don't know what to do?"
"You do know what to do Mark. You're over forty years old for God sakes. Think with the damn head that's on your shoulders and not the one that's in your pants." She said, aggravated at her friend. This was something that could have totally waited for tomorrow, but like always, Mark was always putting his own needs ahead of anyone else's.
"What?" He asked, getting ready to take a bit of his late night snack. "I come here because I need my best friend right now, and you're treating me like a twelve year old."
"Stop acting like a twelve year old. Seriously Mark. Cheating on Lexie? Someone who would walk through fire to give you everything you wanted and that's how you thank her?"
"It's not like that."
"You're right, it's not. Lexie's more. How am I suppose to defend you after you cheat on her?"
"You're my best friend. That's how. I've had your back time and time again. When Eric said you were too clingy and Erica pulled her shit. I was there for you. When Arthur said you were just some freak who sits in the corner eating her hair, I was there to pick up the pieces. And when George O'Malley broke your heart by cheating on you.. I was there. Me. Why can't you just have my back for once?"
"That was different Mark and you know it." Callie said calmly. She knew if she really said what she wanted to, he would probably never want to talk to her again. "I didn't cheat on any of those people and I can't believe you'd even bring that up. You knew how bad those guys hurt me."
Feeling bad, he threw his sandwich back down. "I'm sorry." He sighed, rubbing his face. "I'm sorry to sound so mean. I just need help Cal. I can't lose Lexie."
"You're my best friend Mark. And I'm going to be honest. You may have already lost her." Callie said, walking up to him and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Why did you do it Mark?"
"She wanted me to meet her dad." He said, taking a seat at the island counter.
"Umm you've been together for two years. You've still not met her dad?"
"No. He's not been the best father to her or Meredith. I'm so much older than her. What if he thinks I'm some kinda.. I don't know... child molester or pervert or something because I'm with someone so younger than me."
"Mark. He would see someone who loves his daughter and who his daughter loves enough to meet him."
"I'm closer to his age than I am Lexie's though Callie."
"What did you tell me?" Callie said, taking a seat beside him. "When I first got with Arizona and I was scared out of my mind what you, my friends and my family would think. What did you say?"
"You can't help who you fall in love with."
"Exactly." Callie agreed. "The heart wants what it wants. That's what you said to me. If I would have listened to my head when I met her. I'd probably still be in my apartment living as a cat lady or something by now because I was afraid of what others thought. I couldn't help falling in love with Arizona.. and now look." She motioned around her. "She has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have great friends, family, a nice home, dogs, a wife that absolutely adores me as much as I do her." She said and hesitated before she continued. "And I'm going to be a mom in about seven months." She told him their secret even though she wasn't sure how Arizona would feel about him knowing right now. "So yeah.."
"Whoa." Mark stopped her. "You... you're pregnant? I didn't even know you were trying again?"
"I'm not." She shook her head. "Arizona is."
"Wow. Congratulations, Cal."
"Thank you. But don't tell anyone. Even Lexie, if she ever decides to talk to you again."
"Scouts honor." He held up his hand.
"Thanks. But enough about me. I need some more of an explanation because you didn't cheat on Lexie because you're older. It has to be something more?"
"I just had all of that on my mind and she had been talking about marriage again and you know me, I run. So that's what I did. I was at work and that nurse had been flirting with me for weeks and I just gave in."
"Mark. I'm going to be blunt. You really need to fucking grow up and be the man I know you can be."
"I know." He said, massaging his temples. "I really fucked up, Callie."
"Yeah you did." She agreed. "You're not suppose to hurt the person you love. Not that way."
"What am I going to do to win her back?"
"That's on you big man. I'm here to listen, but I won't help pursue Lexie into taking you back. That's something she needs to decide on her own, give her some time but show her you're really sorry. That's about all I can say."
"Come on, if you cheated on Arizona I would help you out."
"Don't ever say that again Mark. I'd never do that." She glared at him letting him know she didn't appreciate the remark.
"I'm just saying."
"It would never happen, I'm just saying."
"It could, because if Lexie doesn't take me back, we could always go back to the old days and I could scratch your back and you could scratch mine." He laughed, letting Callie know he was kidding.. somewhat anyhow.
"Eww, Mark no. Why do you always have to ruin a moment." Callie laughed, not knowing her wife had came down stairs and was listening to their conversation. She had never came out and told Arizona her and Mark used to be friends with benefits before she came along. She didn't feel the need because they had stopped months before the blonde entered her life.
"Come on. You can't tell me you don't miss this." He said, pointing down at his pants.
"I CAN tell you I don't miss that." She laughed, slapping him on the arm. "I have something sooo much better than little Sloane."
"What's that?"
"Little Arizona." Callie laughed.
"Come on, she can't give you what I can. How about one more go on the pogo stick. Let me poke your hontas?" He said, nudging Callie with his shoulder, teasing her.
Arizona had heard the whole conversation and to say she was steaming mad and shocked was an understatement. She had thought when her and Callie first got together that she and Mark had been a thing, but the brunette never confirmed so she figured she had just thought too much into their friendship. "How about... you get the hell out of my house?" Arizona said, making her presence known. She couldn't stand back and stay quiet any longer.
Quickly turning around to the blonde, both Callie and Mark froze when they saw the anger in the woman's face. "Babe."
"No. Don't babe me. I want him to get the hell out of my house now." She had had enough of Marks ass the past month and now finding out the Callie and he used to sleep together pushed her over the line. Why had her wife never mentioned that before? This was something huge that should have been out in the open or so she thought. Now that she thought back, there were times Mark was extra flirty with her wife but she never gave it a second thought until now. She never wanted to come in between their friendship, but now it was a different story.
"Arizona." Callie stood from her sat. "It was just..
"No, Callie, don't you dare defend him. He has no right to come into my home and talk to you like I don't matter in your life. I am your wife and he should respect that. He can't come here and propose you for sex, joke or no joke. His behavior as of late is not okay in my book and I want him out of my house." She pointed at both of them. "It's time for you to grow the fuck up Mark." She turned around and went back upstairs, slamming the bedroom door.
Both Callie and Mark were in a state of shock from Arizona's outburst. "She didn't know.. we?" Mark whispered.
"No." Callie sighed. "I didn't hide it from her.. I just didn't see it was significant enough to tell when we first got together."
"And when you two got serious?"
"It didn't matter."
"Ouch."
"You know it never meant anything Mark." Callie said standing from her seat. "I have to go apologies to my wife for something in the past now because of you, so I suggest you leave." She said, smacking him on the shoulder.
"Sorry Cal."
"Yeah, so am I, because she won't let this go.. not with you at least. So you better be on your best behavior because hell hath no fury like a women scorned. Well in your case, like two women scorned." She laughed.
"Hey. There was two of us." He said, refering to them hitting the sheets all those years ago.
"Yeah but she loves me, she has to eventually give in. And at the moment, she despises you more so now than she did thirty minutes ago."
"Damn. Now I have to make it up to two women." He said, scratching his head. "I'm in some deep shit."
"Yeah.. good luck with that." She said, pointing to the door. "Now I have to go try my best to get on her back good side."
"Thanks Cal."
"Yeah well I could thank you for having to go apologize my way back into bed." She said, walking back up stairs to Arizona. Hearing Mark close the front door, Callie tried to open the bedroom door.
"Arizona?" Callie knocked. "Let me in honey." She said, after she found the door locked. She was afraid of this.
"Why don't you just go to Mark's and stay." The blonde yelled through the door.
"Don't, Arizona."
"Don't what Callie? Don't be pissed because I'm just learning after two and a half years of being with you, that you slept with Mark fucking Sloan?"
"He's my best friend." Callie said as her wife opened the door.
"Evidently he was a lot more than you led me on to believe." Arizona said, throwing a cover and Callie's pillow out into the hall. Letting her wife know she wasn't welcome in the room for the rest of the night.
"Seriously Arizona?" She couldn't believe she just kicked her out of their bedroom. After all this time she had never kicked her out before.
"Seriously Callie?" She glared back. "You know, I always thought Mark was hot for you from the first time I met him especially after I saw him grab your ass that day when he came to the river. But I gave you the benefit of the doubt and didn't question it. I knew how it felt when JoAnn would always try to insinuate something between me and Tim. He was my best friend and Mark was yours, so who was I to question that. I thought if there had been something more.. you would have had the guts to tell me back then."
"There was nothing to tell." Callie said, picking her pillow and cover up. "That happened way before you came along. I've never ever thought about Mark in that way since I met you, so I didn't see the need to bring it up."
"He was in my home, hitting on you.. wanting to have sex with you. That's not okay, not after what he did to Lexie. How am I suppose to know if he's kidding or not? He needs to grow the fuck up. Acting like that is not okay for a forty some year old man."
"He's my best friend. He was only kidding."
"And I am your wife."
"I know." Callie sighed. "I'm sorry I never told you. It wasn't a big deal to me then and it still isn't. I don't think of him in that way at all. He was only joking around babe. You know how Mark is, he tries to joke to make the situation seem lighter than it really is."
"Maybe I would believe that he was kidding if I hadn't just happen to learn a little fact about your relationship with him." Arizona said, grabbing ahold of the door. "Even if I pushed everything to the side. Him cheating on Lexie and being your.. fuck buddy or whatever you want to call it. It still isn't okay for him to come in this house, a house that I share with my wife, and say what he said to you whether he's kidding or not." She said, shutting the door and locking her wife out again. She may have been a little harsh to Callie, but she just needed time to get over the fact that Mark has slept with her wife.
"Arizona." Callie sighed, knocking again. "Don't lock me out of our room."
"Go to bed, Callie."
"I can't, you keep locking me out."
"Theres plenty of beds in this house."
"I know where the key is to unlock it. But if you don't want me in there, I won't use it." She said, running her fingers through her hair. "How many times have you told me the past is the past, Arizona? You told me I had to let the past go to move forward so many times in the beginning of our relationship because I was scared. Scared to love you, scared to be loved by you. But I listened to you and look where we are. We're happily married with a baby on the way. What happened with Mark is the past, Arizona. It was something I never brought up cause I didn't feel like it mattered when we met and I still feel like it doesn't. Mark means nothing to me in that way and you know it. You're the only person I love. So if you want to be mad, be mad." Callie said, leaning against the door. "But I won't go to bed anywhere but our bed. I'm staying right here until you let me back in. If it's right now or two days from now. I'm not going anywhere." She said, sliding down the door and dropping her head in her hands in exhaustion. She could absolutely kill Mark right now for bringing this on.
Arizona sat there listening to what the brunette had to say. Of course Callie was right, Mark was her past and she is her present and future. It wasn't Callie's fault, everyone had a past, but it still didn't make it any better knowing Mark had been with her wife in that way. Not when he was right in the middle of their group of friends. Laying down, she tried to get some rest but after what had went on she knew that wasn't going to happen.
After more than an hour of tossing and turning, she came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to get any rest until she talked to her wife. Getting out of bed, Arizona went to open the bedroom door, finding Callie asleep leaning up against the doorframe, clutching her pillow in her arms.
Sliding down the opposite frame, Arizona sighed when her butt hit the floor causing Callie to stir from her light sleep. "Hey." She said, as the brunette looked over to her.
"Hey." Callie swallowed the lump that instantly formed in her throat. She really didn't want to fight with her wife anymore.
"I.." Arizona shook her head. "I'm mad Callie."
"I know and I understand that you are, you have every right to be. But Mark means nothing in that way to me. I was just lonely and getting dumped on left and right. I've never thought about him after I met you."
"I believe you, it's just knowing he has seen you naked so many times and.. in the way I should only ever see you.. I don't like it, Callie. I'm the only one that gets to see you in that state.. and knowing he has.. It kills me."
"I know you don't and I hated myself for doing it back then. I was just lonely and he was there. but he's only my best friend, nothing more. I never hid it intentionally, Arizona. I'd never do that to you. I honestly didn't think it would ever matter. You would always say the past is in the past and thats where it needed to stay so I figured the same was true with that. I'm sorry." She said, looking down at her hands. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you from the beginning."
"I'm sorry too. I punished you for something that you did before we got together... and it's not fair. I'm sorry, Callie."
"I love you, Arizona. You're the only one I ever think about in that way." Callie said taking her hand.
"I love you too. It's just knowing that he has seen you at your most... vulnerable. It makes me jealous... like set things on fire jealous."
"I don't want you to be jealous. If it makes it any better, he's nothing compared to you."
"No body can compare to me, I'm just that damn good." Arizona teased, trying to make lite of the situation, but turning it back heavy once again. "It's going to be a while before I can look, much less deal with Mark again." She said, playing with her wife's hand. "I just need you to put yourself in my shoes. It's Mark. Manwhore Mark. Can you tell me it wouldn't bother you knowing he was my best friend that I also had a sexual past with?"
Thinking about it for a few seconds. "It would devastate me, knowing he had slept with you and you were still friends.. good friends." Callie agreed.
"I think of all the times he has been handsy or whatever, It never bothered me.. until now. I keep thinking back of that night at Meredith and Derek's Halloween party and he was too eager to do that body shot off you. And now I get it."
"I love you though Arizona. When I think of Mark, I don't think of him in any way except as my friend. Hell I forgot we used to sleep together until he said that tonight."
"It's not that I don't trust you Callie, because I do, you know I do. But I just don't know if I can trust him anymore."
"But that's only because he cheated on Lexie. If it wasn't for that, you'd only be pissed because he saw me naked. He's did a bad thing to her, but that doesn't make him a bad person."
"Maybe." Arizona said, resting her head on Callie's shoulder. "I love you too, but it's still a shock. Knowing he had something you wanted."
"That was before I knew what was good for me." She chuckled. "And you're right... he shouldn't have been making jokes like that especially after what he did to her. Not if he's really sorry."
"I want to punch him in the balls."
"I do too right know. Maybe add in agood swift kick." Callie agreed, she said kissing the blondes hand. "Do you forgive me?"
"There's nothing to forgive. I should have unloaded on him, not you. I'm sorry I took it out on you, Calliope."
"It's okay." Callie said, resting her head on the blondes. "Can we go to bed now?" She asked when she saw it was past three in the morning. "I'm so tired and we have to get up in three hours."
"To answer your first question, Yes." Arizona said, standing from the floor. "And also, that's not happening."
"Huh?"
"We are not going into work tomorrow. We're going to call in sick. I feel a sore throat coming along." She joked, grabbing her throat.
"Oh yeah me too. I think if I just stay home and nap all day, it may help me get over it quicker." Callie said standing and walking to their bed.