Chapter Six

I feel like I'm frozen in time as I look at Callie, who is looking back and forth between me and Marcus's dead body. "Callie, I can explain," I whisper. When I speak Callie is looking at the dead body in front her, but the minute I say her name her eyes snap back up to me. She slowly starts to back from the doorway looking at me with slight confusion. She's in shock right now. She is too shocked to recognize me, but she is the average human being and the average human being would be in shock after they just witnessed a murder.

"Oh God," Callie says before she completely turns around and starts to run down the hallway.

The plus side to this moment is the fact that Callie didn't recognize me, but the downside to this moment she is about to scream and run for help. If I don't stop her I will be more screwed than my current situation.

I let go of the knife and leave it in Marcus's lifeless body before I takeoff running after my wife. I step out the room and see movement from right. When I turn my head I see Callie running as fast as she can down the hall away from me. For the second time we make eye contact, she looks back at me in compete terror before she turns around and tries to run faster.

I takeoff after her and she tries to pick up her speed, however, the fact that she is still in her bridesmaid dress and heels puts her at a disadvantage. With ease I'm able to catch up to her because I have on pants and sneakers. I grab her right arm and yank her backwards. She doesn't turnaround, but instead her back collides with my front. "Oh God, someone help me. Arizona, oh God, Ari-" I cut her off by placing my right hand over her mouth. I felt my heart break a little bit when she started to scream name to help save her.

I wrap my left arm around her stomach and start to drag her back to room that we were just in. The way back to the room proves to be a little hard because she is putting up on hell of a fight. I always love when my victims put up a fight; however, it's a different story when that person is your wife. Callie and I do like to wrestle and goof around when we are home and I admit I usually let Callie win, and when I'm with her I use about 30% of my real strength against her. I'm currently fighting myself from using 100% of my strength against her right now. She is kicking, screaming, and swinging her arms around trying to find a weak point in my grip. I know if I use 100% of my strength against her right now I run the risk of her snapping her own neck. It's happened 5 times during my lifetime. I catch someone and they end up snapping their own neck because they are trying to get out of my grip which is pretty strong.

I could never live with myself knowing that I killed my wife if she snapped her neck right now. So I reframe myself and only use about 45% max. It takes me a little while to bring her back to the room mainly because she was fighting me every step of the way. I feel her nails as they claw away at my neck, and arms. I also feel her bite my hand a few times as well. Her attempts to escape my grip fail and I'm able to get her back into the room.

Once we are far enough into the room I close the door behind me with my right leg which happens to my dominate leg. I say this because the minute Callie feels that I'm on one leg her right leg raises up and backwards to kick me in the crotch. I may be a girl and have nothing in between my legs, but let me tell you it still hurts like a motherfucker.

For a second my grip around Callie becomes weak and she manages to escape my grip only to fall flat on the floor. She tries to scurry away but it doesn't work, in an instant I find myself on top her. Somehow she manages to turnaround so her back is on the ground and the front of her body is facing me. "Please don't hurt me," Callie pleads as she punches and slaps me trying to get away. "I have a wife and kids who love me, please don't kill me."

"It's me Callie," I say as I try to grab her arms to keep her from hitting me. "Callie stop, nobody is going to hurt you."

"My wife will kick your ass if you do anything me. I've seen her do it before." Callie says as she continues to squirm underneath me.

I take a quick second to analyze our current position. Worst case scenario now is if I use 100% of strength against her she could end up with a dislocated shoulder or two broken wrists. Two things I can live with. I won't like the fact that I hurt my wife, but at least she won't be dead. I manage to get a hold of both wrists with each hand. I squeeze down on them before I force them on the ground above her head. "CALLIE, STOP" I yell at her.

Callie spends ten minutes trying to pull herself from my grip and she ends up tiring herself out. As she starts to calm down, Callie starts to cry silently. "Arizona, where are you?" she whines. She refuses to look at me and her face is lying to the right side and her eyes are closed.

"Hey you, I'm right here." I say in a breathless whisper. The use of her nickname is what causes her to open her eyes and look up at me again.

"Arizona?" Callie questions.

I give her a shaky smile, "hey you," I'm still a little breathless from the fight we just had. I release my grip from her and I get off her and we move to sitting position on the floor. Callie goes from looking at me to looking at Marcus's body on the table while I just stare at my feet for a few minutes.

"Is he dead?" Callie questions as she nods over towards Marcus's body.

"Yeah," I reply back in a barely there whisper.

"Oh my God, Arizona, what did you?" Callie is looking at me as leans forward a little.

"I-I-I don't know," I stutter. "I just lost control."

"Lost control?" Callie gives me a puzzled a look. "Lost control over what?"

"He was going to kill me." I blurt out.

"What?" Callie's face goes from puzzled to straight up confusion as she leans back.

"The wedding photographer, Marcus, is the man that has been going around Seattle killing gay couples." I confess, "The weddings are how he finds his victims. He made up the ruse of needing help with heavy camera equipment to get Teddy or Addison down her alone. He knew if he killed one the other would come looking for them to see what was taking so long. What he didn't count on was Teddy sending me instead. It didn't matter though because he knew I was gay as well because he saw how I was interacting with you."

"Wait, wait, stop," Callie says to me as she shakes her head a little bit. "How do you know all of this?"

"He told me right before he lunged at me with a knife trying to stab me." I pause for a moment. "We got into a fist fight for a few minutes, and I was able to knock him out. I know I should've stopped but I couldn't. Adrenaline got the best of me and without really thinking I stabbed him with his knife."

We are quiet for a few minutes before Callie speaks, "we have to call the police."

"What!" it's my turn to snap my head and look at her with confusion.

"That's a dead body, Arizona." Callie points over towards Marcus. "We have to call the police; it's the right thing to do."

"We can't call the police," I say to her.

"Yes we can, and we are." Callie says with stern voice as she reaches down her front dress to pull out her cell phone which was conveniently stored in her bra.

"Callie stop," I reach forward and grab the phone out her hands before she has time to unlock it. "Let's just think about the consequences here if we actually do call the police."

"Think about consequences?" Callie questions. "We wouldn't have to think about the consequences if you didn't kill a man." She somewhat hisses the last part to me.

"So you're ok with the fact that if I let him live he would have killed me, you, Addison and Teddy." I counter. Callie doesn't respond, "I don't have a problem telling the police that it was self-defense because that was what it was. I'm worried about what the people of Seattle will think of not only me, but you and our kids as well. Not everyone is going to see this scenario the same way. This could ruin my career, my reputation, and my life. It could also ruin yours and our kids' lives as well, and I don't want to do that. I'm not going to bring you down for something I did."

"It's going to look a lot worst if the police find this body and then question you about why you didn't call right away."

"It will be fine, Callie" I reach over and touch her left foot. "Just go home, while I pick up this mess here." Callie gives me an unsure look. "Don't worry, Callie. I've done this before, we'll be fine." I get from the floor before I help Callie to her feet.

Once Callie is on her feet she looks over towards the table at Marcus. "I don't know, Arizona."

"Hey, look at me." I grab Callie's chin and force her to look at me. "This is my problem, not yours. The less you know the better you are. If something happens to me, which nothing will, at least you'll be there to raise our kids. Now go home, and don't call or talk to anyone. Just go home I'll be there when I get done here I promise."

I watch as Callie fights with herself about what to do, and finally she agrees to my plan and leaves the room. I release a heavy sigh before I look around and think about what I want to do with Marcus's body and the fact that Callie and I's fingerprints and hair are now in this room.

It takes me an hour to get rid of the evidence that Callie and I were down here in the basement. After I get rid of our existence I move on to Marcus. I cut him from the plastic before I take some extra sheets and wrap them around both of my arms. After I cover my arms I drag his body outside through the loading bay and to a nearby dumpster. I make sure that I leave drag marks and smudges on the wall to throw off the police. My killing shoes are always two sizes to big so the police will think I'm man, because my converse are also the men's version. I throw his body in the dumpster before I grab my kill tools and leave the hotel.

I will admit that when I was cleaning my mess I was calm and the fact that Callie left without any protest really hasn't hit me until right now as I make my way home to her. I would love to say that Callie seems cool about me killing someone, but I have been with to this woman for 7 years. I know this is the calm before the storm; she has been home alone for the past hour in a half. She's had time to think, time to analyze everything she saw. When I get home I know I'm going to be bombarded with a shit ton questions, and this is a lot different than the apartment situation. Callie watched me kill someone, I don't know if I can talk myself out of this one successfully.

Twenty minutes later, I find myself pulling into the garage. I turn off the car and take a deep breath before I get out and walk inside the house. When I get inside I see that the only light on in the whole house is the living room. I see Callie sitting on the couch with Roxie by her feet; she is staring straight ahead in silence. When she hears me enter the room is when she turns to look at me. "What," Callie pauses for a moment before she licks her lips and takes a deep breath. "What did you do with the body?"

I'm quiet for a moment as I think about my answer. "I think it's best if you didn't know." I reply back in a small whisper as I walk over to the loveseat and sit down, never taking my eyes off of her.

"I don't think I can do this," she whispers back.

"Do what? You didn't do anything."

"I saw you kill a man, and I let you do God knows what to his body. I don't care if he's a criminal or not, he's still a human being with a family that loves him."

"Callie," I whisper before I get up and sit next her on the couch. I lift up my right arm and immediately she scoots over and snuggles up next to me. "I know you want to call the police and let the system handle this, but I don't think we're ready for all of that. I could go jail, I'll have to go to court, and people could threaten you and our kids and I don't want that. I want you guys to be safe and in order to keep you guys safe we have to do this." I whisper before I kiss the top of her head.

"How are we going to get through this?" Callie questions.

"One day at the a time." I reply back.

We are quiet for a few minutes before Callie's pager starts to blare in the background. Callie reaches over towards the coffee table and grabs her pager. She glances at it for a moment, "I have to go, Jodie, is trying to kill one of my patients." Callie says calmly.

I just shake my head before I remove my arm from her and she gets up to change into jeans and a t-shirt before she is out the door and off to the hospital. When Callie leaves me again I stay downstairs on the couch. Somewhere between 2 and 3 in the morning is when I fall into a dreamless sleep. My internal clock goes off at 6 a.m. and as I start to get ready I go over every scenario about Callie finding out more about my hobby and let's just say every scenario didn't end in my favor.

I know my wife and even though she seems fine know, I know she will have questions for me later. The more questions she asks the more curious she becomes, the more curious she becomes the more she will snoop, and I think you know where I'm going with this. I'm in the locker room changing while thinking about what I should do. Should I tell her that I'm a serial killer or should I try to point her down a different path? I think being a drug dealer or cheater sound so much better than being a serial killer right now.

After I get changed and make my way upstairs to the peds floor is when I decide that I'm going to go with option number three, which is avoid my wife and run like hell when I see her walking my way. In order to avoid my wife I decide to immerse myself in work, I only have two patients right now so I plan on taking any and every case Lauren throws my way. It sounds like a good plan only Lauren doesn't have a lot cases for me. The first case she gives me is a 16 year old girl who needs Ductus Arteriosis surgery. It's a fairly common congenital heart defect that I have seen plenty of times so I can do that with Morgan or Alex without the help of Yang or anybody else in Cardio. I would say Teddy, but she is in Australia for the next 3 weeks for her honeymoon.

I decide to do the surgery with Morgan in the late morning to help pass time. Our surgery takes about 3 hours and is successful. When I get back upstairs it takes Lauren 30 minutes to hand me my next case, it's another easy one, club foot repair. Since it's another easy surgery I opt to make it harder and longer on myself by taking Jo into the OR with me.

Jo is very smart and will make one good peds surgeon one day, but right now she has the habit of always second guessing herself. A club foot repair should take about 2 hours, but with Jo it should take 4.

I wanted to do the surgery around noon but all of the ORs are full and we have to wait until 1 in the afternoon for an OR. Lauren doesn't have any more cases for me to take, so I look at the staff schedule to see if I can pick Lexie's brain about hallucinations. I come up short when I see that she and Derek are doing some brain surgery that I have no idea on how to pronounce. It says that it will take them 5 hours and they started not more than an hour ago. I set my tablet down on the table at the nurse's station, and just look around at the controlled chaos that is the peds floor.

When I look to my left I find another way to take my mind off of Callie, and how to appear busy if she comes looking for me. If I can't talk to Lexie about hallucinations, I can do the next best thing which is talk to the only survivor of the Nyx, so to speak, Kyle.

I grab my tablet once more and see that Stark isn't due in until 12:30 which mean I have 45 minutes to talk to Kyle. I put my tablet back at the station before I walk to Kyle's room. When I enter his room I see a boy with shaggy blonde hair around 15 years old looking at the TV watching The Today Show.

"Hey Kyle, where are your parents?" I ask as I put my hands in my lab coat pocket.

"Across the street eating a real breakfast at Perkins, without me," his voice is dry and somewhat filled with hate because he has to eat this shit while his parents eat better food.

"Be thankful they didn't get it to go and then bring it back here." I say with slight smile. "I had a girl about your age in here two weeks ago and her family brought back Perkins and ate in front her."

Kyle gives me a small smile, "I guess you're right. It could be worst."

I smile back before I look out the door and window to make sure that Stark isn't around. When the coast is clear, I lick my lips and take a step closer inside of the room. "Has Dr. Stark said or done anything funny or weird while you have been here?"

"How do you mean," Kyle questions.

"Has he given you strange medicine, or talked about the Nyx?"

Kyle takes a few minutes to think about my question. "I remember him telling me to be a good boy or else the Nyx was going to get me. I told him some smartass answer about how the Nyx was a stupid urban legend and then took a nap. When I woke up I felt a little groggy, he was putting something in my IV, he told me what it was but I couldn't remember. When I finally came too I saw the orchid right in front me, scared the shit out of me." Kyle pauses and blushes when realized what he just said. "Sorry."

"It's ok," I say back.

"I remember Dr. Stark coming into the room with some more medicine; he said it would help calm me down. It took a few minutes but after he gave me the medicine I passed out again, and when I woke up the orchid was gone and Stark was yelling at some nurse for giving me the wrong medicine, and thought it was weird."

"Why is that?"

"Ever since I have been here, he has been the only one to give me my medicine. That's why I was making fun of him when I first got here. I mean a male nurse come on that's about as awkward as a female football coach." Kyle says with a smile. Kyle's smile disappears when he sees that I'm not smiling. "Wait a minute, are you saying that Dr. Stark is the Nyx?"

"WHAT?" I hear a high pitch voice say right behind me.

Both Kyle and I turn around to see his parents and Dr. Stark standing in the doorway. All three of them are stunned at the statement that Kyle just made. I want to defuse this situation and I'm about to, but my plan of avoiding Callie has failed because she too is standing in the doorway.

"Sorry to interrupt, but can I borrow Dr. Robbins for minute?" Callie asks. Nobody addresses her because the three of the ripping into Dr. Stark at the moment. Normally I would feel sorry if one of the patients was ripping into one of my doctors or nurses and I usually try to help them but Stark is on his own for a number of reasons. Good luck buddy.

"Arizona," Callie motions for me to follow her which I do. We walk to the far end of hall where nobody is right now, "I have to ask you something that has been bothering me all night since I got home and since I've been here at the hospital."

"What?" I say playing dumb.

"What did you mean, by 'I've done this before'?"

Shut. The. Fuck. Up. I did not say that last night. Did I?

I just shrug at her, "Tim always wanted to be just like my dad and be in the military, only he wanted to be a Special Investigations Officer in the Air Force. When we were kids he would make me do fake crime scenes to prepare himself for what he might see, and plus my dad was an investigations officer in the Marines. He would always come home telling us stories about how people tried to hide their evidence." I pause to gauge her reaction. Currently she has a pretty mean poker face. "Plus not to mention the mindless amount of crime dramas we watch when the kids are a sleep."

Callie opens her mouth to say something else but her pager stops her, thank God. "Damn it Jodie," Callie says under her breath before she turns and walks away from me.

Since my schedule is light and I don't have a lot of patients I decide to go downstairs to get lunch. I grab a cheeseburger, fries and a Mountain Dew White Out, with my tray I take a moment to look out at the tables in the cafeteria. The interns, residents, and attendings are sitting in their groups just like the cliques from the high school days. Normally I would be sitting with Teddy, but it looks like I'm going to be solo for the next few weeks.

Not more than 10 minutes into my lunch, I'm joined by wife, and it should be no surprise that she has more fucking questions for me. "Where did the knife set and gloves come from?"

I was in the middle of taking a bite from my cheeseburger when she asked the question, which works in my favor because I take my time to chew so I can think of answer because I didn't think she saw my knife set. "They were Marcus's. He was going to torture me before he killed me." I say before I take a sip from my Mountain Dew.

"Where was your bridesmaid dress?" Callie wastes no time asking me the next question.

"I was told I was going to be doing heavy lifting because of my reputation. I didn't want to ruin that dress. I know we live in an upper class neighborhood and we both bring in nice big pay checks because we are the head of our departments but I'm not going to ruin a dress that was over $5000 for shits and giggles."

"I know, but it was weird that you were dressed all in black. Shirt, pants, shoes. It just seems like you were planning on killing Marcus." Callie trails off.

Please for the love of God Calliope let this go. I usually hate interns just as much as Callie does right now, but Jodie if you can hear please make a fuck up, like right now.

The sound of Callie's pager breaks the silence between us. "Fucking interns," Callie huffs.

Thank you, Jodie.

"I'm telling Owen to not hire anyone from Northeastern University because this fucking ridiculous." Callie gets up from her seat and leaves the cafeteria upset.

I'm in the cafeteria for about another 20 minutes before I wander up to the peds floor waiting to start my surgery with Jo. 1 o'clock rolls around and I find myself in surgery with Jo. Like I said early our surgery takes about 4 hours because of Jo second guessing herself. Even though it was 4 hours it felt like 30 minutes, I think that it is mainly because I don't want to answer any more of my wife's questions.

After our surgery, I do one last check on my patients before I go to my office to fill out paperwork until the end of my shift or until Callie hunts me down again. As I walk to my office I notice Kyle's room is completely empty and some nurse technicians are cleaning the room and getting it ready for the next the kid.

"Lauren," I turn around to face my favorite charge nurse. "Where's Kyle?"

"He passed away in his sleep this afternoon, around 3:30. We have been trying to locate his parents but they seem to be MIA at the moment."

I get a pit in the bottom of my stomach. I having a feeling that it was my fault that Kyle died in his sleep, and I get the feeling that Kyle's parents might be dead as well. "Where's Dr. Stark?"

"He left about an hour ago."

I'm more than willing to bet that he left with Kyle's parents. I just sigh to myself because there is really nothing I can do about it now so I just walk back to my office and close door behind because I don't feel like dealing with anyone right now. Stark killing Kyle and his parents, Callie asking questions about last night and my best friend is away on vacation for the next 3 weeks. How could this day get any worse?

An hour into my paperwork, I get a text message on my phone. The text tone is the sound of a woof whistle which is what I use for my wife. I grab my phone and take a deep breath preparing myself for whatever she has to say.

"Sofia and Roxie are with Zola for another night, and Gloria is at home with twins right now. Mark has jumped on the marriage bandwagon and wants to marry Lexie so he wants my input, so don't wait for me."

I let out a sigh of relief when I'm not under fire about last night. "Ok, have fun and I'll see you when you get home" I text back.

It takes me another hour to finish my paperwork. When I look up at the clock I see that my shift was over an hour ago, but I got so focused in my work I just kept going until it was done. With my paperwork done and filed, I go downstairs to change into my street clothes. Since Callie is with Mark until probably 9 or 10 o'clock I decide to take a quick detour to my boat so I can drop off my knife set and trophy just in case Callie decides to snoop around the inside of my car.

The traffic is light so it takes me about 30 minutes to get the marina. I'm in my own little world as I walk on to my boat, however, I go into high alert when I see that my helm is turned a quarter of an inch to the left. It would also seem that someone has put my winter seat covers on my outside seats the wrong way.

When you have a hobby like mine you become a very paranoid person, I know how I left my boat, house and office every time I leave so I will know if someone was been snooping when they shouldn't be. I put the helm and my seat covers back the way I like it before I move to go downstairs to haul of my boat. When I get to door that leads to haul I see that it is unlocked and slightly open. After a close inspection of my door I see that the lock wasn't broken or picked, whoever opened it had a key. In a flash my mouth instantly dries and my heart starts to race a mile a minute. The only person that has a key to this boat is Callie. I push the door open and walk down the small set of stairs into the haul of my boat.

When I'm fully inside I close the door before I look at the disaster zone that is my boat. When you first enter my boat you see the small kitchen and seating area up against the wall to your right. When you look further towards your right, you see the master bedroom and bathroom. When you look towards your left you see a small hallway that leads to the other 5 bedrooms on this boat.

I look through my master bedroom first, and I find trash, sheets, and towels all over the place. In the kitchen, there is more trash, food, beer cans and soda cans everywhere, as well as, dishes and more towels and sheets. As I walk down the hallway that leads to the other bedrooms I get the same result. I walk to the back room, my supply room, not just for my boat, but for my hobby is when I start to get more and more nervous. The door is open. I'm the only one with a key to this door, so when I look at the lock I see that it has been smashed opened with a fire extinguisher that is on the ground right next to door.

I take a deep breath and open the door the fully and walk through it. Just like the other rooms before it everything you could find is laying on the floor in front of my wife, who is currently crying on her knees right now. Finally it would seem that my heart decided to stop beating a mile a minute and has decided to stop all together. In front of my wife is everything I have used to killed people over the past 16 years. My rolls of plastic, bleach bottles, my retired knifes, bone saw, and my trophy boxes, which are open with a few blood slides out on the floor.

Callie looks up from the items in front of her and looks me directly in the eyes. Her makeup is gone, and her eyes are red and puffy. "What is this?" She says between breaths in a barely there whisper.

The beginning of the end?