A/N: There is more talk about rape scattered throughout this chapter so consider this your warning. As for Dr. Boswell I think some of you should relax and take a step back and look at the whole picture. I don't want to spoil it but she's here for a reason, and it's not to sleep with Arizona. That's all I'm saying.
Chapter Nine
I look down at the table through my surgical mask for a few seconds before I look across the table into Lauren's green eyes. We both have a look of concern and a silent conversation on how we are going to defuse this situation. I just give a heavy sigh before I look to my right into two pairs of large blue eyes that consist of my nursing stuff, while Lauren looks to her right into a pair of brown eyes that are waiting for their next set of instructions.
"I don't know Dr. Robbins; I have never seen anything like this before." Lauren says to me. "What are we going to do?"
I just give another sigh as I look back down at the table. "I've seen a case like this once but I was still a resident at John Hopkins."
"Do you remember what you did to fix it?" Lauren asks.
I take a few seconds to think, because right now time is valuable. "I what to say we added another slice turkey."
"Right," Lauren says. "Nurse Sofia, we need another slice of turkey."
Sofia looks down at the series of lunch meats and toppings in front of her. She reaches into the bag and pulls out a large slice of turkey and hands it Lauren. "Here you go, Dr. Lauren."
Lauren takes the turkey and gives her a slight head nod, "Dr. Robbins," Lauren then hands the slice of turkey of to me.
When the turkey reaches me I can't hold my laughter in anymore and I start laughing at the kitchen table where we are currently making lunch.
"MOMMY," everyone yells at me.
"I'm sorry," I take a deep breath trying to contain laughter, "sorry." I repeat until I'm able to stop laughing. Once I stop laughing I manage to put the last slice of turkey back on the sandwich. After the last slice of turkey is on I look over towards Sofia. "I think we are all set, let's close them up."
Sofia shakes her head and hands me four slices of bread. "Don't forget to cut one of patients into four triangles for Will and Jackie."
"Thank you for reminding me Nurse Sofia," I say with a small head nod. I cut the sandwiches into triangles before I quickly put away the sandwich supplies and join the others at the table to eat lunch.
After we eat lunch is when Gloria comes back to the boat because the kids have to go back to Callie later this evening. I had a fast and fun weekend with the kids, yesterday; Seattle had its first snowfall of the season so the kids and I went to the park to play in the snow. We built snow forts, snow men and we had a snowball fight before we called it a day. The kids weren't a big fan of Lauren when they first met her, but they are slowly starting to like her. You can tell they like her more than Colleen. I think they are starting to view Lauren like they view Gloria, they think she is a baby sitter and will only be around every once and a while.
It takes Lauren, Gloria and I, 30 minutes to pack up the kids belongings and put them into my car. Lauren stays on the boat while Gloria and I drive back to the house. Before we walk up to the door I pay Gloria my half of her pay check since I know that when Callie drops her off at her apartment she will pay her again.
We knock on the door and Callie comes to answer to the door. The kids say hi to Callie before they take off running with Gloria and Roxie right behind them leaving a fun awkward silence between Callie and me.
"How were the kids?" Callie asks.
"Fun and crazy like usual. We played in the snow, played on the boat, and went sailing around the Puget Sound." I pause for a moment, "what about you? How was the spa with Mark, Lexie and Colleen?"
Callie's face drops a little bit when I bring up Colleen's name. "I'm not dating Colleen," Callie blurts out. She blushes a little bit when she realizes how loud she sounded. "I admit I wanted to sleep with her a few times to stop thinking about you, but I could never bring myself to do it. At most we just kissed. I never knew she had a huge crush on me, and would get so clingy after we started talking."
"Oh," I say under my breath, just shaking my head lightly. We are awkwardly silent for a few minutes before I make the first move, "well I should go say goodbye and get going. Danny is coming by later to clean the bottom of my boat."
"Oh, ok" Callie whispers back as she steps aside so I can say goodbye to the kids.
It takes me 30 minutes to say goodbye mainly because all three of them start crying when I say I have to leave. After I calm them down, I go to leave. "I'll see you later," I say to Callie as I walk towards the front door. In that moment I see all the love pouring out of Callie through her eyes. I can see her asking me stay, I can see her telling me she loves me, I can see that she forgives me, but her mouth betrays her. "See you later," the words that come out of her mouth even catch her by surprise, she wants me stay, but she just watches through pleading eyes as I walk back to my car and leave.
The entire car ride back to the boat I try my best to fight away the tears and I'm able to win a round or two because only a few tears drop from my eyes during my car ride. When I get back to my boat I decide that I need to take my mind off of things. I enter the haul to see Lauren standing in my doorway. "Come on, we need to find these men before they split or go deep into hiding."
Lauren just shakes her head before she changes into a pair of jeans and puts on a pair of shoes.
We drive to Chris's address just in time to see him walk out of his house and get into his car. He is wearing his Coast Guard uniform, which is good for us because I know where he will be for the next 12 hours. I highly doubt he will be able to leave the station when he's on duty. We follow him all the way to his station. I park the car in a somewhat empty parking lot, at the right angle you have the perfect view of the station, and we are only visible to them through at least one window.
"Why did you park here?" Lauren asks me, "Why didn't you park over there, it has a better view point than this place." Lauren points to another parking lot that is directly across the street from the station.
"We can't risk him seeing us. If he thinks he is being followed then it makes killing him a lot harder and more riskier than it needs to be." I say to Lauren, "plus I have to play it extra safe because you are with me."
"Me?" Lauren points to herself.
"Yes you, you are the one that got way remember?" I repeat to her because her memory is still a little fuzzy. "In their eyes you are just as dangerous as they are. You can identify them and get them thrown in jail. If they see you, they could try and kill you while I'm work or away with my kids. So you have to stay in the shadows at all times, understood?"
Lauren shakes her head yes, as she looks intently into my eyes.
We stay there for about an hour before I turn on the car and start to drive away.
"Wait, what you doing? Chris is still inside?" Lauren looks over to me with confusion.
"I know. He is currently severing a 12 hour shift for the Coast Guard. He's not going anywhere for a little while and since we know he won't be at home for the next few hours we can use that time to search his house and find out who the other men are."
Once again Lauren just shakes her yes, understanding what I'm telling her. I see out of the corner of my eye as she sits there making mental notes of everything that I'm saying and showing her.
It takes me 10 minutes to get to Chris's house mainly because it is getting to be late evening on a Sunday and everyone is at home with their families. I park the car a few houses down away from Chris's house. I give Lauren my back up baggy hoodie and a set of latex gloves before we sneak around the back of house. The porch on both the back and front of the house is completely surrounded by trees and bushes so his neighbors can't see that he has unwanted visitors.
I pick the lock in less than five minutes, and I'm the first one inside the house. I hold my hand out telling Lauren to stay put and she does, while I check the house first to make sure nobody else is home.
When you enter through the back door, immediately to your right is a door, which is open, which leads to his laundry room. Currently inside that room is a large German shepherd who knows that I'm not supposed to be there. The dog starts to growl and bark at me before running towards me. Before the dog can reach me I manage to close and lock the door just in time. With the dog locked in the laundry room I motion for Lauren to come in, which she does. "Close the door," I whisper to her.
After she closes the door she comes up and stands on my left side. "We need to find anything that can point us in the right direction on finding the other two men. Pictures, voice mails, anything." I start out. "You look in the kitchen, dining room and living room, while I look in both of his bedrooms."
Lauren just shakes his head before she turns around and enters the kitchen. While Lauren is in the kitchen I find myself in the guest bedroom first. It only takes me about 5 minutes to look through it because it's empty. There is a queen size bed in the middle of the room against the wall with two empty nightstands on either side. Across from the bed is a closet, which is empty as well, and the dresser that is holding the TV and cable box is also empty. A true guest room if you ask me. I make it into the master bedroom and find it just as empty as the guest bedroom. The only difference is, the closet, dresser and night stands are filled with random non helping crap.
However setting on his nightstand that is close to his walk in closet is his laptop. His laptop is still on, and when I open it I'm happy to see that it doesn't have a password to protect it. I play on his computer for a few minutes before I stumble across a folder that is filled with pictures of him and his friends beating and raping several women. In this day and age, technology is becoming more and more used by the public. So now when I stalk somebody I always bring a thumb drive so I can steal and download pictures to use against them when I kill them. I just finish downloading Chris's folder when I talking coming from the living room.
'No, please don't.' I hear Lauren say, followed by some male laughter. 'I'll pay you whatever you want, just please let me go.'
I get up and slowly make way out of the master bedroom and walk across the hall into the living room. Right as I step into the doorway of the living room I hear Lauren scream, 'no, stop.' She is crying now and mixed in with her crying and screaming is the grunting of David and the laughter of the other men with her.
Right in front of me is a large 50 inch flat screen TV that is playing a homemade DVD of what Chris, David and others did to Lauren while she was missing. I look down at the floor to see Lauren sitting there with her knees tucked into her chest as she watches the scene that she relives on a nightly basis in her dreams. She is too stunned to move, so I grab the remote that is sitting on the arm of the couch that is to my right and I turn off the DVD player before I throw the remote back on the couch. Even though I have stopped the DVD, Lauren still sits there with her eyes still glued to the TV.
I quietly walk up to her and sit down next her on her left side. "I didn't know they were making videos." Lauren whispers to me. "I found a shoe box by the TV and it was filled with writeable DVDs and there were numbers on the cases that went from 1 to 27. I grab the top DVD, 27, and put it in the DVD player." Lauren starts to cry a little. "I'm number 27, that's all I was to them… a number."
We sit there in silence for a little while, maybe for another hour or so, I'm not too sure. "Come on we should go before someone comes."
Lauren just shakes her head and I help her to her feet before I grab the DVD box. I don't want the police to find this little gem, because I want these men to myself. With our new found evidence we return to the Coast Guard base and wait for Chris to make his next move, which doesn't happen until 7 o'clock in the morning when his shift is over.
At the end of his shift Chris drives to 1st avenue and walks into C.J's diner where he meets up with two other men. Thanks to Chris's pictures and DVDs I don't need Lauren to tell me that the men he is with are the other two men we are looking for. One of the men has a darker complexion and has a dark heavy set beard, and the other man has a light complexion with short brown hair and a little bit of stubble around his face. Both men are just like Lauren described to me.
As they eat breakfast together I get out of the car, and I'm soon followed by a confused and nervous Lauren. "What, what are you doing? I thought we could let them see us? The sun is coming out and streets aren't that crowded so they will be able to make me out." Lauren's voice sounds rushed and panicked.
"First off, if you stay calm and don't panic they are more than likely to ignore you." I turn us around so Lauren's back is facing them. I want to play it on the safe side because Chris seems to the type who likes to people watch. "If you start yelling and causing a scene then they will notice you, so calm the fuck down." I say in a more stern voice before I turn to start walking again. Lauren doesn't say anything else and just turns with me as we walk to a nearby food truck. "Second, we've been up all day and all night, and we haven't eaten since lunch time yesterday. I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Can I get 2 Monte Cristo sandwiches please," I say the last part to the food vendor as I give him a 20 dollar bill.
It takes the man 5 minutes to make our sandwiches and soon we are sitting on an empty park bench eating and watching Chris as he and his friends laugh and joke around. I want to say it's about 45 minutes later when the three of them go their separate ways. Chris gets in his car and leaves while the other 2 men get into a dark blue 2013 Ford F-150. As the truck passes us, I take the time to memorize the license plate number before we return to my car and go back to my boat.
The minute Lauren's body touches my bed she is out like a light, while I just sit on my side of the bed with my iPad searching for the owner of the dark blue F-150. 30 minutes into my search I find the owner, 28 year old, Aziz Nader a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness on California Ave in West Seattle. I close my iPad and lay down with Lauren for a bit rest now that I know 2 out of the 3 men that did this to her.
For the next week Lauren and I pick up the routine where I would go to work and when I came back we make dinner before we set out to stalk Chris, and for the first time in my life while I was stalking Chris I had to use all of my control to keep myself from getting out of my car and walking up to the bastard and snapping his neck in board daylight in front of hundreds of people.
Ever since I brought that box of homemade DVDs home with me, Lauren has been using my laptop to watch hers and only hers. Every night before she goes to bed she sits in the kitchen and watches all 4 excruciating hours of what they did to her. For 4 hours I just lay in my bed and listen to her as she screams, pleas and begs for them to stop, to let her go, or to just kill her. For 4 hours I listen to the men mock and laugh at her as they rape her. The more I listen to her watch the DVD the more I feel myself growing angrier at these men, and all I want to do is make their death just as long and painful like they did for Lauren and the 26 women before her.
I look at myself in the mirror one last time as I try to calm myself down. Tonight's the night. Tonight is the night I kill Chris, and as much as I want to be just as violent with him as he was Lauren I can't because that is when mistakes are made and with Lauren with me I can't afford to have any mistakes.
I only have a half day, and normally I would be using my day off with my kids, but I really want to take Chris and his friends off the street for good. Once I feel composed enough I leave my bedroom and enter the kitchen to see Lauren tying her shoe. Ever since I let Lauren stay here and before I got her clothes, I gave her some of mine. And out of all the clothes I got and gave her she has taken a liking to my black button up long sleeve shirt. She wears it all the time, during the day, during the night and she even sleeps in it as well. The only thing that changes is her underwear and pants; she refuses to let that black shirt out of her sight.
Currently she is wearing that black shirt with dark blue jeans and black sneakers I got her at the mall a week ago. When she is done tying her shoe she stands up and faces me.
"Are you ready to go?" I say to her as I grab my duffel bag that is sitting in front of the kitchen sink.
"Yeah," she says in a barely there whisper.
"You don't have to come if you don't want." I pause to look at her. "I will understand if you want to stay here for the night."
"No," her voice is a little louder this time. "I want to be there when you kill those assholes."
We are silent for a few seconds before I just shake my head and the two of us head to my car. Once we are in my car it takes us 30 minutes to pull up to the remains of the house that David, Chris and the others used when they kidnapped Lauren.
The street is empty, but I play it safe and park a few houses down before she and I sneak around the back and sneak into the basement. I set my bag down and start to take out my rolls of plastic while Laruen just walks around the room that she was once scared of. As I set up the room I occasionally glance over towards her as she continues to walk around. You can see it in her eyes that she is reliving certain moments when she gets to a certain a spot. As I watch her I also notice that the fear and terror that was once in her eyes is completely gone, and they are now filled with anger and rage.
It takes me another hour to completely set up the room, and half way through that time I notice that Lauren is done walking around taking a trip down memory lane and she watching my like a hawk almost as if she is remembering how I set up and do everything. Once my plastic walls and table are all set up, I reach into my bag and pull out several photos I found on Chris's laptop. I set them up on one of the walls and that draws Lauren's attention away from me. She looks at the pictures from the women before her and you can see the sadness in her face, the pictures I have of these women are pretty graphic even for someone like me.
10 minutes after I make my finishing touches is when I turn my attention to Lauren who is still looking at the pictures. "We're all set here. We should get going because Chris will be leaving for dinner soon."
Lauren just shakes her head before she takes one last look at my pictures.
During our stalking of Chris we found out that he works the night shift and likes to go home for his dinner breaks. He gets relived from his duty for an hour to take a break. I chose not to take him in the parking lot at the base and wait until he gets home. Before I take him I want to delete the pictures he has on his computer, because like I said before I want Chris and his friends all to myself. I know when Chris doesn't return from his break people are going to be looking for him, and if the police find those pictures on his laptop then that would mean I would have to share Aziz and my last mystery man with police, and I don't like sharing.
I wait until Chris is inside of his house before I unbuckle my seat beat. "Stay here," I say to Lauren who does nothing but shake her head.
Once I get confirmation that she is going to stay put I sneak to the back patio of his house. Before I make way to the back the door I make sure I remove all the lights from his patio. Once all the lights are gone I start make enough noise to get his attention. At first the noise is enough to get the attention of his dog and he comes out first. The dog starts sniffing around and you can tell that he has found my scent because he coming right towards me. Before he can even make a sound my arms wrap around the dogs neck and in one hard twist I snap the dog's neck killing him instantly. The dog's body drops like a rock but I stop it before it can make a thud sound on the patio.
After his dog, Melvin according to the dog tag, is dead I move to the back door and wait for him to notice that his dumb dog is missing. I'm waiting for about 10 minutes before I start to hear his voice.
"Melvin, come here boy." He says as he walks towards the door. "MELVIN!" he flat out yells when the dog doesn't come. "Where the fuck did that moron go?" Chris says as he stands just a little out of the doorway.
"He's waiting for you in hell," I reply as I stick a needle of M99 in his neck.
Chris has just enough time to look at me in panic before he passes out. Usually I catch my victims before they hit the ground, but for Chris I just let his body hit the ground not caring. I step over his body and step inside his house and look for his laptop which is sitting in the living room open. He was looking at the pictures I found a week before.
I take the time to delete his pictures before I bring his and Melvin's body back to the car. It will raise a lot of red flags if someone came to look for Chris and found his dog dead with a broken neck. As I put his body in my truck I see Lauren start to tense up a little bit. When I get back into the driver's seat I grab and hold her hand silently telling her that it will be alright, which works a little because she starts to relax as we drive back to the kill room.
Once I strap him to the table, we play the waiting until he wakes up. We only wait for about an hour before he starts to open his eyes and try to move around. When he realizes that he can't move and that he has a gag in him mouth he starts to freak out, it's normal for me, but Lauren is struggling to take all of this in.
When I walk over towards him and show him my face is when he starts to calm down. "I'm going to remove the gag from your mouth. If you scream I will cut off your tongue." I pause as we both look at each other. I see the fear and panic in his eyes, and I know he is looking into blue lifeless eyes. "Blink if you understand."
Chris blinks his eyes and he start to breathe heavily. Like I promised I remove the gag and like he promised he doesn't scream. Chris continues to breathe heavily while I turn around and grab a knife from my knife set. "What- What are you doing?" Chris says to me.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I turn around to face him, still holding on to the knife.
"I didn't scream, you said if I didn't scream you wouldn't cut off my tongue." Chris's speech is starting get faster the more nervous he becomes.
"I did say that," I just shake my head lightly looking at him. "But I never said that I wasn't going to kill you."
Chris's eyes grow wide in terror. "Please, please don't kill me. I'll do whatever you want. Please," Chris starts to break down and cry. "Please don't kill me." His last plea is more like a whine mixed in with a cry.
"You know what you could do for me?"
"What," Chris spits out. "Name it and I'll do it."
"Tell me who your friend is," I grab Chris by the chin and turn his head to the left so he is looking at a picture of the man that has a light complexion with short brown hair and a little bit of stubble around his face.
"Aaron, Aaron Miller. He's a mortgage broker for Wells Fargo on 4th avenue," Chris says, "now are you going to let me go?" Chris looks at me with pleading eyes, and all I give him is a knowing lifeless smile. "You promised."
"I didn't promise you shit," I hiss at him as I take my knife and cut the right side of cheek and take a drop of his blood.
"I'll scream if you don't let me go," Chris says to me pretty much ruining my moment with my new trophy.
I set the trophy by his head before I reposition the knife so it's right on top of his fresh cut that I just made. Very slowly I push the knife into his cheek making sure that the sharp side the knife is facing his lips. "Scream and see what happens," I say as the knife fully penetrates through his cheek.
He's eyes slam shut in pain and he lets out a somewhat loud cry. "Why are you doing this?" he says the best he can since there is a knife in his cheek and his mouth is wide open.
"I'm doing this for them," I completely remove the knife from his cheek and force his head to the right where he comes face to face with all 26 of his dead victims.
"Oh God-"
"Please don't, I'll give you anything, stop, just let me go, I won't tell anyone about this." I cut off as I mock him. "Welcome to their world," I slam my elbow into the side of face as I lean up against him facing the wall as well. "Is your heart racing yet, are you scared, are you mentally saying you're sorry to everyone you ever hurt because we both know you're not leaving here alive."
"Please, I was forced to do it. David and the others made me do it. I swear." Chris says in another cry/whine.
"You know the one thing I hate the most in this world is pedophiles, and coming in in a close second are criminals who lie about their crimes, own the fact that you raped and killed these women." I hiss at him as I remove my elbow to get a good look at Chris. "You made DVDs. I found those DVDs and watched those DVDs. No one forced you to do anything. You happily climbed on top of those women against their will and raped them."
We are silent for a few minutes while Chris continues to cry like a little bitch. "I'm sorry," he whines. "Please let me go and I will never do it again, I promise."
"Your death isn't for me to decide," I say to him.
"Who, who decides." He says in a scared whisper.
I take my knife and cut the plastic wrap that is holding his head down. "Her," I say as I grab either side of his face and lift his head up to show Lauren who is standing at the end of the table.
"Oh God," Chris whispers to himself he starts to lower his head as he watches Lauren move from the end of the table to the left side of the table right across from me. "Don't do this," Chris pauses. "Be rational about this, call off your attack dog." Chris hisses the last part as he briefly looks over towards me. "You were a sweet, loving girl. Killing me makes you just as bad as David, Aziz, Aaron and I."
Lauren tilts her head to side never losing eye contact with him. "I guess you could say that the moment you tied me to the bed over there and continuously raped me, is the moment you killed that sweet, kind, loving girl." Lauren says as she points to the far corner of the room.
"Please," Chris pleads in a whisper.
"What did you always say to me at the end of the night before you left," Lauren takes the time to think for a minute. "Oh that's right; your services are no longer needed." For the first time since she started talking Lauren looks up at me and gives me a head nod.
"No," Chris says, "NO-" his scream is cut off when my knife penetrates his chest right in his heart.
Lauren lets out a small gasp, and it causes me to look up at her. She's not upset and she's not scared. She looks happy and relieved that Chris is died. "Are you ok?" I ask.
Lauren's eyes never leave Chris's lifeless body, "yeah," she whispers as tears of joy fall down her face.
I make Lauren sit in the corner while I take the time to deconstruct my kill room. Just like earlier I feel her watching me carefully as I take everything apart. When we get back to the boat we go to Neah Bay and dump Chris's body into the bay. After I throw the last bag back into the water I take a seat next to Lauren who is resting on the bow of my boat curled up into a small ball because it's cold outside with winter approaching. I take a seat next to her and for an hour we just stare out into the bay before she turns her head to look at me. "Thank you," she says to me. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
I just give her a light smile.
"It's sad that Callie doesn't know what she is truly missing." Lauren pauses for a moment. "True, the real you is a little scary at first, but knowing that you are there to protect me makes up for it."
We just look at each for a few moments, "We should probably get back. I need to clean my knives before the blood sets in." I say as I get up and turn on my boat.
On the ride back to dock Lauren gets cold and goes down into the haul. When I dock the boat I enter the haul to see Lauren wearing my black long sleeve button up shirt and black sweatpants. I "Would you like a cup tea?" she says when she hears me enter the haul.
"Sure," I say with a smile. "Let me clean my knives real quick. It should be about another 30 minutes."
"Ok," Lauren says with a smile before turning her attention back to the tea.
30 minutes later after I clean my knives we are sitting in the kitchen drinking tea in a comfortable silence. It's about 20 minutes later when I'm done. "Well I have a long day tomorrow. Callie and I are working on an OCD case. So I should get some sleep." I give Lauren a smile before I retire to my room.
Lauren finishes her tea about 10 minutes after me, and for the first since I brought those DVDs on this boat she doesn't watch it and instead she comes in the room and goes to sleep.
It takes me a little while to fall asleep when Lauren enters the room, but when I finally do fall asleep it feels like I just closed my eyes because not too soon later my alarm goes off. I glance over towards Lauren to see her still asleep when I get up out of the bed.
I take a quick shower before I heat up an English muffin and head out the door. I quickly get changed before I head up stairs to the peds floor, because for the first time in weeks Callie is actually working on a case with me. Usually when I need an ortho consult she sends someone in her place, and she will only work with Jo, Morgan, Alex or Dr. Stark. So the fact that she's not avoiding me at work has to be another step in the right direction, right?
I'm the last one to arrive to the patient's room. Callie and Leah are standing on the right side of the bed, while Morgan and Jo stand on the left side. Callie and I make brief eye contact before I just give a small smile and join Morgan and Jo on the left side.
"Well now that everyone is here, why don't we get started," Callie says with a small smile as well as she looks at me wanting to start the consult.
"Jo, why don't you do us the honors" I say to the young resident.
"Ok," Jo says under her breath before she looks down at her notes. A few seconds later Jo starts talking about our 15 year patient who has Osteochondirtis Dissecans or OCD. He got this disorder two years ago while playing soccer and every treatment that he has tried hasn't worked. If Callie can't help this kid then he is probably screwed.
Jo and Leah go back and forth, talking about the treatment options. Morgan answers any questions the parents have, while Callie and I continually steal glances at each other. When Callie looks at me, I see and feel the love that she always had for me. There is no anger or hate towards me; it's almost as if nothing has ever happened. After our consult is over Morgan and Jo go downstairs because they have surgery with Alex while Leah just disappears somewhere, leaving Callie and me alone at the nurse's station.
"How have you been?" Callie asks as she turns to fully face me.
"Good, good. I think I'm going to add a washer and dryer to my boat this weekend." I say with a smile, "weekend project."
Weekend project? Washer and Dryer? Who the fuck cares, why I am I rambling right now?
"That sounds like fun," Callie says awkwardly.
"Yeah, should be-"
"There you are," Colleen cuts off, as she walks and wraps her arms around Callie.
For a brief second I see Callie cringe before she twists out Colleen's grip, which makes feel a little better but I'm still a little jealous that this bitch has her hands all over Callie.
"So I was thinking that since you cook all the time," Colleen pauses to glare me, "I would cook for you, the kids, and for Mark and Lexie tonight."
"You don't have to do that," Callie says was fake smile.
"Nonsense, I want to do it. Your house, dinner will be at 7:30." Colleen tries to give Callie a kiss but Callie backs away from her and she gets the hint.
Colleen turns to leave, but not before she gives me another glare.
Glare at me again, bitch, and I stab in the neck with my pen.
"Please come over for dinner tonight," Callie says causing me to break my glare from Colleen's retreating figure.
"What?" I question.
"With you, Teddy and Addison gone and with Mark and Lexie's busy schedule Colleen has been helping me with kids during the evening. Mainly because she thinks I'll have sex with her one night." Callie pauses for a moment, "not that would or anything," Callie starts to panic when she fully comprehends the last part of her statement. "The kids won't eat Colleen's food because Mark, Lexie and I don't like it. We made a faces while we ate it and now they won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. I know if they saw you eat it they would devour it without asking any questions."
"If you, Mark, Lexie or the kids don't like it, what makes you think I will?" Callie just shrugs at me. "What does cook?"
"She loves organic food," Callie says.
"Oh, is she one of those organic freaks that shops at Whole Foods and stores just like it?" I reply.
"I shop at Whole Foods, sometimes." Callie's voice sounds a little defensive and a little hurt because I pretty much just called her freak.
"Yeah, but you're not a freak," I shoot her a playful innocent smile. "You're not one of those people who only eat chicken if they are raised by monks and sleep in a 300 square foot room with hard wood floors and leather couches with 60 inch flat screen TVs that play animal planet."
My comment causes Callie to relax as she tilts her head back to let out a roar of laughter. Something that I've really missed. It takes Callie a few minutes to calm down, "so is that yes?"
"I'll be there at 7," I say with a light smile.
"Thank you," Callie says as she leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek.
After our conversation Callie gets paged back downstairs to ortho, while I just stay on the peds floor checking in on my patients and fill out paperwork. Before I leave to drive to the house I pull out my cell phone and call Lauren. I gave Lauren my burner phone just in case she needed anything or if she was trouble.
After about 5 rings she answers the phone. "Hey, what's up?" Lauren says with a little cheer in her voice.
"Nothing much I was calling because I just wanted to let you know that I wouldn't be home for dinner. Callie invited me over for dinner and I really want to see her and kids as well."
"No need to explain, I understand." Lauren pauses for a moment. "I'll see you when you get back."
After we both hang up the phone, I continue the rest of my day with a little extra pep in my step.
It's around 6:30 when I ring the doorbell, of my house. Yeah I'm a little bitter about this, but Callie is starting to come around so I don't want to take one step forward and then two steps back. Not more than 30 seconds after I rang the doorbell is when it opens. It's Callie. When she sees me her face lights up and so does mine.
"I got you purple tulips." I say with a nervous smile as I hand her the flowers.
Callie's face lights up even more as she takes the flowers from my hands and inhales deeply. "There beautiful," Callie says as she leans forward in a momentary lapse of judgment, she kisses me on the lips. The kiss is only a small peck, and I'm about to back away but Callie grabs my jacket and yanks me forwards as she deepens our kiss. We kiss for several minutes before we break apart, I see Callie about to say something but the horrible smell of Colleen's cooking hits me first.
"Holy hell," I say before I back up while covering my mouth and nose. "It smells like rank ass in here."
With a smile on her face, Callie crosses her arms and tries her best to give me a stern look.
"You can stare me down all you want, but if this food tastes as bad as it smells. It should be illegal for her to cook."
"Please be nice to her," Callie asks.
I pretend like I'm gagging before I look over to Callie. "Sorry, I threw up in my mouth a little bit."
Callie gives me a playful slap on the shoulder while smiling at me. "Go say hi to your kids."
We both enter the living room where the kids are on the floor playing with Mark and Lexie. The minute they see me, I'm instantly bombard by my three tiny humans. The kids and I play for about 30 more minutes before Colleen comes into the living room to call us for dinner. The look on her face would suggest that Callie didn't tell her that I was coming.
The seven of us enter the kitchen and sit at the table, "well now that the real head of the table is back we can finally stop playing musical chairs." Mark says with a smirk on his face.
Callie and Lexie just give him a disapproving look while Colleen pretty much kills him with her eyes. Colleen places dinner on the table and with my best poker face I muster I eat dinner, which causes Sofia, William and Jackie to do the same. Expect every time they take a bite they make a face.
Now I have never actually tasted shit before, but if I had to take a guess this is what it tastes like. After we choke down dinner we all watch Beauty and the Beast before we call it a night. Mark and Lexie leave while Callie goes to talk to Colleen in the kitchen and I go upstairs to put the kids to sleep.
When I get the kids to sleep I walk into our bedroom because I want to get one of my favorite hoodies from the closet. As I cross the hall to enter our room I hear a not so happy Colleen by the front door.
"I don't know what she did to you Callie, but you can't just let her back into your life because she gave you fucking flowers." Colleen hisses.
I don't hear Callie's response mainly because it's none of my business and I'm a little scared about what she might say. I'm searching through my side of the closet when I hear the front door slam shut. I pause thinking that one of the kids would wake up but after a few minutes of silence I go back to looking through my things.
When I find my hoodie I leave the closet to find Callie standing in doorway. "Sorry, I just really wanted my favorite hoodie." I say with a light smile as I hold up my light green hoodie. Callie doesn't say anything in response, "well thinks for dinner, since I don't have a mad case of diarrhea it wasn't that bad. The kids are asleep so I'm just gonna to get going." I say as try to walk past her.
I'm almost out of the room when I feel Callie grab my wrist and me pull back into our room. She spins me around to face her and before I know it her lips are on mine for a deep heated passionate kiss. Her mouth opens and her tongue forces itself into my mouth. As we continue to kiss Callie leads me over towards the bed. When the back of my knees hit the bed I feel myself topple over and Callie falls on top of me. Instantly my legs spread open allowing Callie to fall between my legs. Her hands are resting on either side of my head and my hands are around her waist. I'm about to slip my hands under shirt when she rips her lips away from her mine and gets up off of me completely.
"I can't," Callie says breathlessly. "I can't do this with you. Not right now at least." Callie raises her hand to her forehead. "You should leave," she says to me.
I don't say anything and just shake my head before I get up off the bed. I grab my hoodie and without saying another word I leave and head back to my boat. So close, yet so far away.
When I get to my boat I see Lauren in my room in bed watching World's Dumbest. I get changed and get in bed with her. "We should start following Aziz," I say to her without taking my eyes off the TV.
I see through my peripheral vision that she is shaking her head agreeing with me. "Arizona…" Lauren trails off. "I want to be the one that kills Aziz."
"No," I say almost immediately.
"Please, this my battle not yours. David, Chris, Aaron and him killed a small part of me. I want to be the one that kills them. You can set everything up, it's just I want to be the one that stabs them in the chest."
I should say no, I have to say no, but instead I say "fine." I'm an idiot. I'm so concerned about getting Callie back I'm willing to let Lauren kill someone under my supervision.
"Thank you," Lauren whispers before she turns off the TV and lays down to go to sleep.
Just like yesterday the morning comes way too fast. After my solo morning routine, I find myself at work upstairs on the fourth floor in the peds wing. Callie and I are going over our pre-surgery consult with our OCD patient, but something about her seems different. Instead of loving and nice I get anger and hurt. Every time I look at her and smile she doesn't return the look, she is definitely mad at me for something.
After our consult is over Callie tries to rush out of the room but I stop her. "Callie is everything alright?" I say as I grab her wrist to stop her from walking away from me. "You seemed mad back there, are you upset because I didn't stay and fight to sleep over last night?" I pause to read her face, but I can't she is just looking at me emotionless. "Look I didn't fight because you're upset with me and right now I'll take and do whatever it is you give me."
"Or maybe you didn't fight because you are too busy fucking Dr. Boswell on your boat when you're not with me or at work." Callie hisses. My face drops a little bit, "yeah, Colleen said she saw the two of you in the same bed last night after you left my house."
Of course Colleen stalked me and left out the part were nothing happened.
"I knew," Callie lowers her voice and glances around briefly. "I knew you sick and twisted but never thought you drop so low to hit on and sleep with a women who just had a traumatic experience."
"Oh don't get it twisted, Calliope," I snap back. "I would never do that her. I was being nice and helping her."
"You were being nice?" Callie says sarcastically.
"Yeah I was," I start raise my voice a little. "See I was the only person in this hospital to give her place to say while the police figure out who the other men are who did this to her. I was the only person to give her hot fresh food to eat. I was the only person to take her to mall to buy new clothes because David and the other men who did this to her destroyed all of her stuff, which means she is stranded here until she get life squared away."
"More than one man did that to her?" Callie questions.
"Yeah, if would you removed your head from your ass long enough you would have known this. Oh but wait you were too busy looking for my replacement." I flat out yell at Callie.
Before I can take back my words, Callie's right hand reaches up and slaps me across the face, hard. When we first entered the hallway nobody was giving us the time of day, but now it would seem that everybody's eyes are on us as the hallway becomes eerily quiet.
Callie is looking right me but I haven't moved my head since Callie slapped me, so I'm still staring at the ground. We stay like this for a few seconds before Callie turns around and starts to walk off the floor. When her back is pointed towards is when I look up towards her and give out a sigh.
Nice job Robbins, one step forward, two steps back.