1) This is a Calzona fiction and not a Laurzona fiction so I feel like there is no need to add her name in the characters list because she was never staying around for that long. She's only here for a few chapters like a lot of other characters I have used in the past.
2) Lauren wasn't created to get more reviews or to piss any of you off, she's here to show Arizona that she isn't the monster she think she is. Arizona has mixed emotions towards her because for the first time in her life she has BEFRIENDED someone who is just like her (seeing how she kills all the killers she gets close to).
3) I don't want to upset anyone else so I'll tell you Lauren is going to be in this chapter briefly, but without spoiling it for you this chapter and the next chapter are important on many different levels.
4) Reread chapter 24 (or chapter 8) because at no point in time did Lauren sleep with Arizona naked in the same bed. Arizona gave her clothes to wear BEFORE she got into bed with her.
That is all... Hope you enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter Eleven
Sleep doesn't come easy for me as I think about everything that has gone wrong these past few weeks. My alarm goes off at 6 like always but I'm already awake so it's pointless. When I get up I quietly enter my master bedroom while Lauren is still sleep to grab some clothes before I go back to my room to get ready for day. I make my usual cup of coffee and English muffin for breakfast; this is where I miss Callie even more. Waking up in the morning getting ready and when I get downstairs there would be a hot delicious breakfast waiting for me when I walked into kitchen, not mention I enjoy my three tiny humans as an alarm clock as they run and play downstairs.
After I complete my morning routine, I make my way to the hospital. I go to the lounge to get changed before I go upstairs to the peds floor to start rounds. Before I start my rounds I grab my tablet from the charging station, when I turn it on it starts ringing before a message about my mandatory meeting in the conference room pops on the screen. The meeting starts in 10 minutes which means I can't do rounds. I look up from my tablet to see my favorite nurse, Lauren, standing right across from me on the phone with the x-ray technician. I wait another minute or two before she finally hangs up the phone.
"Hey Lauren?"
"Yes, Dr. Robbins?" Lauren turns around to greet me.
"Do any of my patients require my immediate attention?"
Lauren pauses to think for a moment before she shakes her head no, "not that I can think of. Nobody said anything to me when I showed for my shift this morning."
"Good," I say before look around briefly, "out of curiosity what has Dr. Stark been up too?"
"Flirting with that ortho nurse Colleen," Lauren says with a slight chuckle. "That will probably be the most awkward couple in this hospital if they do get together."
I just give Lauren a slight smile as she continues to talk about Stark and Colleen. As Lauren talks I can't help but think that Stark doesn't have feelings for her and is doing something that will defy me in some way, but I don't how or what he has planned. "Ok well I have a meeting that will take up most of the morning, page me if you something happens." I cut off. I love Lauren, but if you get her started she can talk your ear off.
Lauren just shakes her head before she sits down to update this morning charts. I turn around and go downstairs to the second floor where the main conference room is located. As I start to make way down to the conference room I start to get the feeling dread in the pit of my stomach. I will not only be in a room with Callie, but I will be in a room filled with Callie supporters because no matter what when we fight I'm always the bad guy. However I start to relax a little bit when I see Teddy sitting at the head of the conference table facing the door. She is looking down tapping away at her tablet with two cups of coffee in front of her. One of them is a large cup while the other one is a medium cup.
"Should I be worried? Because the last time you drank a large cup of coffee was when you were working on trying to save Callie's life." I say to her as I take a seat next to her on her left side.
"I don't think so," Teddy looks around briefly to see that the room is slowly filling up with doctors. "Addison is finally showing signs that she is friends with Mark and Callie." Teddy whispers. "She wants sex all the time, when we were on our honeymoon we had sex twice every day, it would have been more but there is only some much I can take." Teddy looks down towards her crotch.
I just give her slight smile as we both look towards the door to see Callie, Mark and Addison enter the room and take a seat at the other head of the conference table right across from us.
"Anyways we got home yesterday around 2 o'clock in the morning, and before we went sleep Addison wanted to have sex, so we did, resulting in me only getting an hour of sleep." Teddy pauses to take a sip from her coffee and I do the same, hmm I love peppermint mocha. "Now that is enough about me, we need to talk about you and Callie. What do you have planned to get her back? Whatever it is you already know that I'm in."
"Nothing," I say before Owen steps up to us and hands Teddy a new lab coat and badge. I take a brief glance at it before I try to change the subject. "You changed your last name? I thought you weren't going to that?"
"Why not, you're supposed to do it when you get married its tradition, and we are both all about tradition. Plus Theodora Forbes Montgomery has better ring to it than Addison Altman, and don't think I don't know what you're doing. Trying to change subjects on me, I've been your best friend for a little over 10 years now. I know you." Teddy turns to look at me, "give me until lunch and I will come with a plan so romantic it will blow Callie's mind."
"No," I somewhat yell in a now very quiet room.
"What do you mean no?" Teddy questions as she looks around the room to see that all eyes are on us.
"The slap to face in front of my whole peds staff, and the lack of rumor control by that one over there." I say as I point over towards Callie, "has been nothing but a rude awakening."
Teddy just gives me a perplex look silently telling me to continue.
"Do you know how many sides there are to a story?"
Teddy shakes her head no.
"3, my side, her side, and the truth, but when you step foot into this hospital there is only one side, her side." I point over towards Callie one more time. "There are only two people in this the whole hospital that knows the true story about me and Dr. Boswell. Nobody wants to give my side the time day, and Callie doesn't want to open her mouth and put a stop to it, which is pretty fucking low. And since we both know me, me calling you low really is a statement." I watch as Callie's blank face slowly starts to turn into anger as I call her out in front of all of our colleagues. "It doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong, I'm always the bad guy and everyone punching bag at the end of the day."
"That's not true, Arizona" Callie hisses back. The amount of anger on her face makes it look like she is two seconds away from lunging across this table to attack me, which I'm not going to lie I would find pretty hot.
"But it is," I counter back. "I think it's safe to assume that everyone in this room knows Callie's side of all of our fights over the past years, but do you mine?" I pause to look around the room. "Based off recent events I know none of you care about my side so I'll make this as brief as possible so you can go on ignoring me." I pause one more time to take a deep breath and turn my attention back to Callie as we both pretty much ignore everyone else in the room with us. "The first time we broke up it was because of kids, she wanted them and I didn't. Long story short we broke up for about 4 weeks, now who did you all treat like shit for those 4 weeks, me. Nobody even stopped and asked about my side of the story, you guys only cared about that princess's side of the story. But I finally caved and bent for you, because I loved you and cared for you and wanted to be with you, so I said that I would consider being a mother for you." Callie still looks pissed but that doesn't stop me, I'm on a roll at dig this grave deeper why stop now? Can someone pass the cement? "For a year things were going great between us until I got a phone call in the middle of night saying I won the Cater Madison Grant. Me." I scream as I point to myself. "Arizona Elizabeth Robbins, born in Baltimore Maryland, blonde hair, blue eyes and pasty as motherfucker won the Carter Madison Grant. Do you know how amazing that is, because the only people who win that grant are Asians and Indians, no offence Yang."
"Not taken."
"I had the chance to go to Africa and help a third world country who probably hasn't even heard of half the shit we have in this hospital, and what did you do? You moped and pouted because you didn't want go, because Princess Calliope would have nothing do. But yet and still you walk up down these hallways bragging about your stupid cartage shit, something tells me your 'genius mind' would have kept you occupied. So what happened in the end, you stayed and I went. I thought I could have a good time without you, but I couldn't. I loved and missed you too much so I threw it all away for you. It should be no surprise that when I came back I was treated like the fucking bad guy again and I had to bend over backwards to get you back, and what do you do? You just add insult to injury because while I was gone you and Mark where hooking up and now you guys are having a baby, and during all of this I'm still treated like the fucking bad guy." By now I'm full out screaming at Callie, and I just watch as her anger starts to melt away and I see pain and sadness in her eyes as she starts to see things from my point of view. "Let's skip ahead 4 years later, raise your hand if you know the real reason why Callie broke up with me. And when I say real reason I mean you heard it come from that women over there or from me." I pause again to see everyone look around the room in confusion. Everyone knows that we are fighting but they don't know what we are fighting about. "You don't even know what we are fighting about and you all still chose her fucking side."
I turn away from Callie and face a semi stunned Teddy. "For that reason alone is why I'm not doing anything to get her back." I turn to face Callie one more time. It looks like we have switched emotions, Callie has so much pain and sadness in her face and she is on the verge of tears while I have nothing but complete anger. "You remember what you told me when I was begging for you take me back when I came back from Africa." I whisper at Callie.
Callie just shakes her no as she lets the first rounds of tears fall from her face.
"You said that there are two people in a relationship and it takes two of us to make it work. Yet in still I'm always the one who had to bend for you. I always made sure that you got whatever you wanted whenever you wanted, but when I wanted something that didn't suit your liking you just road it off and didn't give it the time the day. I know I'm selfish and self-centered but so you, you might me more selfish than me because you expect everyone to drop everything for you. And I don't think I can do it anymore, you bent me so much you finally broke me." I don't say anything else as I get up and walk out of the room.
I manage to round the first corner when I feel two strong hands on my shoulders as they lead me to nearest on call room. I get thrown into the on call, and before I turn around I hear the clicking of the lock on the door. When I turn to face the door I see Callie leaning up against the door, with tears in her eyes. She looks sad, angry, and confused all at the same time as she continues to cry.
"Tear me down so I'm a monster just like you; is that what you wanted to do back there?" Callie chokes out.
"No wanted to do damage control because you won't do it."
"Right, how am I supposed to believe that you and Lauren haven't done anything on your boat?"
"I don't know," I shrug at her, "how do I know you and Colleen haven't done anything during your shady on call room visits?"
"I already told you, nothing happened. I wanted something to happen, I want to get you out of mind but can't." Callie takes a few steps towards me before she grabs on my lab coat jacket and yanks me towards her. We both close our eyes while she rests her forehead against mine. "Babies, Africa and all the other mindless shit we've fought about doesn't compare to this. Being a serial killer is in a class of its own, and you can't expect me to bend for that."
"I haven't changed, Callie." I hear my voice squeak as I join in on her crying. "I'm the still the same person you fell in love with 7 years ago. We could just pretend that none of this ever happened, all you have to do is look the other way."
"Oh God, Arizona," Callie says as she breaks the contact between us and pushes away from me. "I can't just look the other way while you kill innocent people."
"There not innocent Callie, nobody in those boxes is a saint. They were criminals and they were monsters just like me. Seattle's police department wouldn't put them down, so I did for them."
"You're not a cop, Arizona," Callie somewhat screams at me. Her voice lowers when she realizes were we are. "The police would have found a way to get those people behind bars where they belong."
"When?" I snap back. "After they kill or rape more innocent people while the police department just sits back and waits until they have enough evidence to try them." I look up at Callie who is still crying and her eyes are somewhat wide as I continue to talk to her. "From an outsider looking in, it's easy to say let the police the do their do job, but it's different when see their world from my point view. They change the way how you think, something inside of you snaps when you watch and listen to videos of four men continuous rape a woman while she cries, screams, and begs for them to stop. It haunts me to know that there are men and women our age who prey on kids, the same kids who are the same age as our children. Not just Sofia's age group, but William and Jackie's age group as well. Do you remember what it was like when you and your family first moved to the United States and you could barely speak English?"
Callie lightly shakes her head yes, "people prey off people like you. You have nowhere to go, and no one to run to. Makes you one of the easiest targets among monsters." I pause for minute before I take a small step forward towards Callie. "All 148 people that I have killed are people just like me, they deserved to die."
"But you don't," Callie's words catch me off guard. "You don't deserve die and I don't want you to. I love you, our kids love you, and my parents love you and they don't love just anybody I bring home. I want to raise our kids together under the same the roof. I want to grow old with you and only you. I want spoil our grandkids rotten, with you. But I can't entertain that thought when I know what you are."
"But you can," my voice starts crack a little bit. "You know I can't hurt you or our kids. You might not be ready to admit out loud right now, but subliminally you've told me that you do know I could never hurt you. The slap to the face last week, and fact that you have been blocking the door this whole time lets me know that you know I could never put my hands on you in that way. You mean everything to me, which is a scary first for me."
"Then stop, for me."
The room is silent for a few minutes before I finally open my mouth to say something. "I can't. It's not that easy."
"Why?" Callie cries out as another round of tears start to fall from her face.
I don't say anything as I walk up to her and wrap my arms around her. For the first time in weeks I place my hands on Callie and she doesn't fight or push me away. Instead she collapses in my arms and we both slowly sink to floor. For the next few minutes Callie cries in my chest as she clutches my lab coat jacket in her hands. My left hand is resting on her elbow while my right hand rubs her back. "I love you," her muffled voice just makes it through between sobs.
"I love you too," I whisper back before I kiss the top of her head.
"No," Callie's hands leave my lab coat jacket for a brief second before they come crashing into my stomach. "You don't do this to the people you love," she starts to scream as she repeatedly punches me in the stomach. Somehow during her punching tirade she managed to maneuver us so she is sitting on top of me while I lay flat on my back. I let her hit me because on a scale of 1 to 10 her punches are no more than 2. "I want to hate you so much, but every time I look at you I'm reminded of everything I love about you."
"I'm sorry," I say as I grab her hands to keep her from hitting me. "I wasn't supposed to fall in love in you like this." Callie pauses for a moment before she slides off me and allows me to sit up. I look over towards her to see her just looking at me in shock about the words that just left my mouth. "You were never my type, but to get Teddy off my back about dating I agreed to go out with you. I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the way I fell in love you, which doesn't come easily for someone like me."
"W-who was your type before me?" Callie questions.
I take minute to allow Callie to fully brace herself because you can see it in her eyes she isn't really ready for my answer. "Women like Lauren, women who were fresh out of an abusive relationship. Women who didn't like or want sex or anything else intimate in a relationship, I mainly used them to give the appearance that I was normal."
"I was a mistake," Callie says under breathe.
"No, I didn't mean it like that." I say as I lean forward trying to reach for Callie's hands.
"Don't touch me," Callie scoots back further out of my reach.
"Calliope please," I pause for moment looking at her. She has managed to stop crying but it seems like I'm on the verge my next round of tears. "I really do love you, and I'll do anything you want me to."
Callie's face drops a little bit before she gives me a slight knowing look. "No you won't. I only want you do one thing for me and you won't entertain the thought." After Callie's words she gets up and leaves the on call room while I remain sitting on the floor staring at the place where Callie once sat.
I don't know how long I remained on floor or when I moved to sit on floor with my back against the wall right next to door, but after sometime I see the door open out of my peripheral vision. I still don't move as Teddy closes the door and locks it. She sits down across from me and places a large fruit salad between us as well as two bottles of water. "The Dr. is in," she says with light smile.
I don't say anything as I just slowly turn my gaze to her.
"Too soon for jokes, noted," Teddy says as she takes a watermelon slice from the bowl. "You ready to talk?"
"There's nothing to say," I say in sad whisper. "She wants nothing to do with me until I change."
"She wants you to stop killing?"
I just lightly shake my head yes. "I've tried, we both know I've tried but all stopping does is get me trouble."
"Did you tell her that?" Teddy slides the bowl in front of me forcing me take a piece of fruit.
I take a strawberry and force myself to eat it since I'm not really hungry. "Not really, I've tried to explain that I mainly kill criminals, I'm working my way up to telling her I've killed my share of innocent people, but I'm so scared about what she might say or do when she finds out I've killed innocent people." I pause for a moment while I take another piece fruit. "She let me hold her Teddy, for the first time in over a mouth I held her in my arms and I loved every second of that. I want that feeling back and the one thing she wants to get that feeling back is the one thing I can't give her."
"Maybe we should try our no killing therapy again." Teddy throws out there.
"We both know I got lucky the last time we did that, and it seems like my luck has been running out lately."
Teddy doesn't saying anything as she looks down at her hands for a brief moment. We are quiet for a few minutes while we eat the fruit salad that is still sitting between us. "I've heard the story about Lauren since I've gone through Mark and Cristina, but I love to hear it from the source if you're up to it."
"Yeah," I say in shallow whisper. The next 30 minutes is spent telling Teddy how I found Lauren and how we have been killing the men that did this to her.
"So are the rumors true or false?"
"False, I did think about it for a quick second last night because I did find it attractive watching someone else murder someone."
Teddy gives me a stunned look for a second, "right when I think I've heard everything from you, you surprise me with that."
"Is that bad?"
"For you, no. I mean your friends with someone like you so I guess it would be normal for you feel that way, I guess."
We are quiet again before Teddy speaks up again, "I know this going to sound harsh, but I kind of wish those men killed her." Teddy opens her water bottle and takes a sip. "She would have been better off dead. There is no way someone can bounce back from something like that. I mean tied, beaten and raped for three straight weeks? There is no amount of therapy or revenge that could help ease that pain."
"Everyone's different, Teddy. You should have seen her last night when she killed Aziz. It was like something dark inside of her loosened its grip around her. Maybe this revenge therapy is what she needs to recover."
"You could be right," Teddy shrugs before she looks down at her watch. "Anyways I have to get going. I have surgery in few minutes." Teddy gets up off the floor and picks up me up from the floor as well. "It's not the end of the world right now. You and Callie finally had a heart to heart talk and that has to be a step in the right direction." Teddy opens the door and two of us emerge from the on call room and start to walk towards the elevators. "In the mean time you need to stop hiding and go save the tiny humans."
"Fine," is all I say as we go our separate ways. Teddy goes downstairs while I go upstairs to peds.
Not more than 2 seconds after I finished rounds and stepped foot into my office my cell phone starts to ring. I look down at the screen to see that Lauren is calling. I click accept but before I can say anything Lauren cuts me off.
"Aaron is leaving town!"
"What?" I stop dead in my tracks right in the middle of my office.
"I got bored and thought I would just follow him for a few hours until you got back, and when I was following him he was looking for Chris and Aziz. When he noticed that they were gone he started freaking out. It looked he quit his job and he was packing some of his stuff at his house and now he is driving somewhere in the woods."
The woods really, I leave in Seattle I'm surrounded by the fucking woods. "Where? Did you see any signs posted anywhere?"
"Haller Lake, I just passed a sign for Haller Lake."
"Ok, follow him but stay out sight and don't try to stop him. I have a change of clothes here but I need to stop by my boat to get my knife set, I keep a spare roll of plastic in my car so when I get there is when we'll strike. If he tries to attack you there is a needle filled with M99 in glove compartment. I'll be there as quick as I can."
"Please hurry; I don't want him to get away." Lauren says before she hangs up the phone.
I leave my office quickly before I go on the hunt for Nurse Lauren. When I find her I tell her that I'm taking the rest of day off and if there are any problems that she should page Alex first before me. After I talk to Lauren I change into my spare kill outfit before I rush out of the hospital and to the marina to get my knife set.
I must say that I did the drive from the hospital to marina and then to Haller Lake in record time. Depending on traffic it takes 20 minutes to get from the hospital to the marina and it is another 20 minutes to get from the marina to Haller Lake. It should have taken me about an hour to find and meet up with Lauren, but I manage to get there in less than 30 minutes.
I start to get an uneasy feeling when I get closer to entrance of this community because it looks like it is gated and the last thing I need right now is be caught on camera the day Aaron disappears. I start to relax when I finally reach the guard's gate, the gate is already up and there is no guard around. My guess is that Haller Lake is only guarded during the evening which means I'm on a little bit of time crunch on killing Aaron, which I'll take any day over being caught on camera the day I decide to kill someone.
During my speedy drive from Corinthian Yacht Club to Haller Lake I tried to call Lauren, but she didn't answer the phone, which makes me nervous. Either she got out of the car to get a closer look at Aaron or something happened to her. I'm really hoping she got out of the car and left her phone in the car, I would rather chew her out than find her dead somewhere in Haller Lake.
After I pass the guards gate I pull over and grab my cell phone which was sitting in one of the cup holders to my right. I unlock my phone and pull up the number for BMW Assist, a feature I didn't want, but Ryan the car guy didn't listen to me and put in their anyway. I think this might the one and only time I'm glad he didn't listen.
"BMW Assist this is Karen how can I can help you today?" a smooth mellow voice says after 5 rings.
"Hi Karen, this Arizona Robbins and I have a little situation on my hands right now." I start off saying, "My teenage daughter has been grounded for the past week but it would seem that when I work late she likes to sneak out of the house. I was wondering if you could tell me the location of my car."
"No problem, just one moment ma'am," Karen says. The line is quiet and I can hear the faint clicking as she types away at her keyboard.
"Ok Mrs. Robbins I have located your car, but I need your username and password before I can give you location."
"Not a problem. My username is doctor mommy and my password is baby girl."
"Ok thank you Mrs. Robbins, your car is located on the north side of Densmore Ave. Do you have the Assist app on your phone?" Karen asks.
"Yes I do," I say as I put her on speaker phone and open the app.
"Well if you login into the app I can send you the directions to your phone."
"Thank you so much, Karen. I just got the directions."
"No problem, is there anything else I can help you with this afternoon?"
"No that was it," I say before we say goodbye and hang up the phone.
As I follow the directions to the location of my car I start to see more wooded area and the houses are becoming spaced further apart. Killing Aaron might be easy for me since the houses are spaced further apart and there are trees everywhere. It will make it harder for people to see me. My relax state goes back into high alert when I find my car parked in a driveway with a blue Chrysler 300 hundred parked right behind it blocking its path.
I know I've told Lauren never to park in a driveway and to never park directly in front of someone house, so the fact that my car is in the driveway lets me know that something is wrong. I park my rental car a few houses down in the street before I grab my knife set and exit my car. I sneak around to the back of the house where my car is park. I'm hiding behind a tree trying to figure out how I'm going to break into a house without alerting anyone because there are little to no windows or doors.
However my planning is cut short when I hear the clicking sound of a gun hammer right behind me before I feel the barrel of the gun press itself against the back of my head. "Throw the bag in front of and then put your hands behind your back." A deep voice says behind me.
Apparently I brought knives to a gun fight so I do as I'm told. When my hands are placed behind my back, I could a cool hand tie an even colder rope around my wrists. When my wrists are tied behind my back I'm forced to my feet and my mystery man has a strong grip on my right arm as he stands on my right side.
I look over to him and see that it is Aaron who has me captive. We start to walk into house, along the way he grabs my discarded knife set. I'm quiet as he leads me into the house and downstairs to the basement. When we get to basement I see Laruen lying on a couch with her feet and hands tied together right across from the stairwell that Aaron and I are on. Aaron pushes me, and I play dumb and just fall to the floor.
When I'm on the ground Aaron makes his first mistake by not only taking his eyes off of me, but he also turns his back to me. Aaron may have my whole knife set, but he doesn't realize that one of those knives is missing. I take a quick glance over to Lauren to see that she has a cut on her eye but she looks okay. I look over to Aaron who placed my knife set and gun on a table is in the process of opening knife bag. I use this opportunity to remove my favorite knife from lower back and proceed to cut the rope that is holding my wrists together.
"How cute, you little girls trying to be like men." Aaron says with his eyes on my knife set. "You really think that you two are smart enough to kill us? I mean I know you killed David but I'm pretty sure that was by accident." Aaron pulls out my meat cleaver and takes a close look at it. "So what was the plan ladies? Did this bitch show her face and scare Aziz and Chris away?" Aaron puts the meat cleaver back in its resting place, the wrong way I might add. "Were you going to show me these knives and think you would scare me away and make me stop by threating that you would find me if I ever did this again…" Aaron's voice starts to trail when he finally notices that my favorite knife is missing.
He turns around to look at me to see that I haven't moved, but that doesn't mean anything to me because my hands are already free. He takes two steps towards me before I move. I lunge forward and stab Aaron violently in his right foot. Aaron lets out a scream as blood continuously pour out of foot. The plus side about living in a wood cabin is the fact that when I stab Aaron's foot the knife went all the way through his foot and lodged itself in the wood making it hard for him to move.
With Aaron stuck in place I get up from the floor and watch him as he swings violently at me trying to hit me. I manage to make behind him before I wrap my arms around his neck and place him in light sleeper hold at first. "Me killing David wasn't an accident, and we killed Aziz and Chris, just like we are going to kill you." I whisper before I apply more pressure causing Aaron to pass out in a matter of seconds.
When Aaron is passed out I tie his hands and feet together before I walk over to Lauren and cut her free and remove the tape from her mouth. "Are you ok?" I question as I help her sit up.
"Yeah," she breathes out. "What are we going to do about him?"
"Kill him" I say nonchalantly. "In my truck is an extra roll of plastic, get it and I'll stay here just in case he wakes up early. Lauren just shakes her head and goes outside while I stay with Aaron.
With Aaron still knocked out we convert a tiny part of his basement into our kill room. He manages to stay knocked for about an hour, we were only waiting for about 10 minutes before he finally wakes up. He tries to moves but he can't, but unlike his friends inside of crying and pleading for someone to let him go he just start to laugh.
"What's so funny," Lauren screams as she steps into the man's view.
"Just like your friend over there," Aaron points to me through his eyes, "I've been doing this for a long time. I'll admit did start killing the women after I raped them until I met David and the others, but I have raped my fair share of women. No matter where you go, who you're with and what you do you'll always be haunted by me." Aaron pauses for a moment, "you really think killing me is going to help you? Because it won't, every time you think you're ready and that man," Aaron pauses and looks over towards me, "or women gets in between your legs you'll see mine, David's, Aziz's and Chris's face hovering over you and you'll do nothing but scream and freak out. Your damaged goods and nobody wants to be with damaged goods, you should-" Aaron's sentence is cut short as he lets out a loud groan/gasp as he eyes get wide.
I remove the knife from his chest looking down at him briefly before I turn my attention to an upset Lauren. She is still staring at Aaron as silent tears fall down her face. "It's going to get dark soon so we need hurry up and leave." I toss her my keys to my rental car. "Go back to boat and I'll meet you there." Lauren just shakes her head before she turns around to leave.
Two hours later I find myself back on the boat with six garbage bags. I see the haul door open and several lights on letting me know that Lauren is down there so I begin to take my boat to Neah Bay to get rid of Aaron.
After I get rid of Aaron's body I just look at the bay and watch as the sky starts to go from blue to golden as the evening approaches. I'm staring out into the bay for about 5 minutes when I feel Lauren come up next me and look out over the bay.
"He's right, you know." Lauren says in a low whiskey voice. "To everyone I date from here on out I'll be nothing but damaged goods to them. Killing Aaron and those men did help a little bit, and I feel a little more relaxed and at ease, but I know I still have road ahead of me on getting my trust and intimacy back." Lauren looks down at her hands briefly before she looks back out over the harbor. "Part of me really wants to go down that road with you, because I trust you, and I feel safe with you, but I know I will never compare or come close to what Callie has." Lauren looks over towards me, "you love her, even if she keeps you in purgatory for the rest of your life." Lauren takes another moment. "I don't think I could deal with you being so close to me, yet so far away. That would drive me insane. I hope one day I'll have what you and Callie have with someone special. With Aaron, David, Chris and Aziz dead there is really nothing else here for me. Even though Aaron's dead I want to prove him wrong and be success story, and think we both know it won't happen if I'm still here."
Lauren doesn't say anything after that as we both look out over the crisp bay. I feel a slight sadness come over me because I know where she is going and I'm sad to see her leave. I really did like her as friend, and I guess her dark passenger did draw me in to her, but now when I look over towards her I don't see it anymore. She just looks like normal women with a huge past. Just like that her dark passenger is gone, why can't I have that?
"While you taking care of Aaron, I called my parents and sister and told them that the investigation is over and there was nothing they could do to help me. They weren't too happy about that, but my sister's husband is in L.A. on a business trip and said he would come and pick me up tomorrow." Lauren pauses before she turns to face me. "So I guess this goodbye."
"I guess so," I whisper back as I try to hide the pain from Lauren leaving.
We are quiet for a few more minutes before my phone breaks our silence. I look down at it to see that Brightwater is calling. "Hello?" I say into the receiver.
"Hello, Mrs. Robbins this is Mrs. Klimek from Brightwater I've tried calling your wife but she seems to be busy at work at the moment." Mrs. Klimek pauses, "My calling you because your daughter, Sofia, is being suspended for the rest of the day."
"What," I all but yell into the phone.
"She hit one of her classmates, Ian, in the face with one of our toy wood blocks. If you could come and pick her up as soon as possible that would be great."
"Ok, I'll be there in about 30 minutes." I say before I hang up the phone.
"Is everything all right?" Lauren questions.
"Sofia hit a kid in her class with piece of wood, and is suspended for the rest of day." I say to Lauren while looking down at my phone in confusion. My sweet baby girl would never do anything like this.
"Oh my God," is all Lauren says while I go turn on my boat and take us back to the dock.
When we get back to the dock I leave Lauren on the boat before I drive myself to Brightwater. When I get to the school I find myself in the principal's office with Sofia sitting in a chair with a calm expression on her face.
"Hi Mrs. Robbins," Mrs. Klimek gets up from her seat right next to my daughter.
"Mrs. Klimek," I say with a small head nod.
"I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about Sofia."
"Sure," I give her small perplex look.
"Is everything alright at home?" I tilt my head to the side and look at Mrs. Klimek like she has two heads. "It just myself and her teacher Mrs. Newman have noticed that she has become distance and quiet over the past few months. She rarely talks to her other classmates. The only person she talks to and is friendly with is with Zola Shepard and the only time they see each other is during lunch."
"Our home life is perfectly fine," that's a lie. "She's always so perky and happy when she's at home, but I'll see if I can get to bottom her sudden attitude change." I turn around and start to walk towards Sofa.
"Oh Mrs. Robbins, Sofia can't leave until she says she sorry to Ian," Mrs. Klimek points over to a little kid with an ice pack over his face sitting in a chair waiting for his parent. Clearly this bitch can't be serious, Sofia hit this kids on purpose, you think she's going to be sorry about that? I just shake my head and turn back around to face Sofia.
I lower myself down to one knee and look at my daughter. "Baby girl, you need to say you're sorry to Ian."
"But I'm not sorry," Sofia says to me. Not only do her words catch me off guard, but the lack of life behind her eyes does as well. "He was making fun of Zola because her mom and dad are different from her. I asked him to stop and he didn't so I made him stop." She has a hint of a smile on her face as she tells me what happens.
"Sofia, apologize" I say in stern voice because I refuse to believe that my baby girl has picked up a dark passenger.
Sofia pouts before she looks over towards Ian, "Sorry Ian, I won't hit you in the face, even if you did deserve it."
"Sofia," Mrs. Klimek and I say in unison.
Sofia doesn't say anything as she looks at me.
"I think we should leave," I say to Mrs. Klimek. She doesn't object so Sofia and I leave the school and head back home.
When we get home I make Sofia sit in the kitchen and work on her homework while walk around. I pass the sliding glass door that leads to the pool when I notice a white bowl by the door outside.
"Sofia, why is there a white bowl outside?"
"It's for fluffy." She replies back.
"Who's fluffy?"
"Colleen's cat, she brought him over one night a few weeks ago and when he went outside he never came home. She said to leave some milk outside just in case he comes back." Sofia response is a little scary because while she was talking she never made eye contact with me and her nonchalant attitude is a little scary.
No, stop. You need to knock it off right now, Arizona. You are reading way too much into this. I'm just upset about all this drama with Callie, and you're blowing everything out of proportion. My baby girl is not showings signs of being a psychopath, even if I went through this phase when I was her age.
The house is silent for another hour before we hear the garage door go up and that is when Sofia's eyes regain life in the form of terror. Callie will not be a happy camper when she finds out about what Sofia did this afternoon.
I'm still standing by the sliding glass door when the door that leads to the garage open. I hear a giggle from Jackie and squeal from William before they both start run down the hallway. William is the first to get to the doorway connects the living room and formal dining room. When he turns to face me his face lights up and squeals one more time, "Mommy!" he comes running up to me.
When he says my name Jackie is the next one to around to the corner. Just like her brother her face lights up as well and she comes running up to me. I drop down to one knee and I let my other two tiny humans bombard me with hugs and kisses. I let them tackle me for a few minutes before I standup carrying them in typical manor. Jackie is sitting upright on my right hip, while William is thrown over my left shoulder. When I fully stand up holding the twins I look towards the doorway to Callie just standing there.
"What are you doing here?" Callie's voice is low and expressionless just like her face at the moment.
"The school called me because you were in surgery. Sofia got suspended because she hit one of her classmates in face with a piece of wood."
I watch as Callie starts to grow mad when I tell her about what her daughter did. "SOFIA SLOAN ROBBINS!" Callie screams. Her scream scares the twins and William starts to cry.
"Hey hey, it's ok little man," I try to calm him down as Callie and I pass right by each other. I take the twins downstairs to the basement while Callie enters the kitchen upset and yelling at Sofia.
When we get to the basement the three of rough house for about 20 minutes before Callie is standing at the bottom of stairs. I'm currently lying on my back with twins running around and over me, however, when Callie comes into my view and I find myself sitting up and turning to face her. Once I'm sitting down on the floor both William and Jackie that the opportunity to sit in my lap.
"Dinner will be ready in hour, so if you could calm them down that would great." I get the same expression from Callie like earlier.
"Did you want me to stay for dinner?" I ask.
For the first time since Callie and I saw each other again she gives me a little emotion, and it's a loving one. "I would like that, and I know the kids would as well."
"Ok, I'll calm them down." I say with light smile.
Callie doesn't say anything to me as she goes back upstairs to the kitchen.
"How about we go upstairs and watch Bob the builder?"
"Yeah," the twins say in unison.
I feel my heart start to break a little because before I left the house they didn't know how to say yeah, which means I missed them learning a new word and that hurts a lot. The three of us go upstairs and watch to watch TV while Sofia and Callie are in the kitchen. An hour after we started watching TV Callie lets us know that dinner is ready. Tonight she made homemade meat loaf and macaroni and cheese.
Dinner is a cute awkward silence because Callie and I don't know what to say to each other. Sofia is still in trouble for hitting a classmate. The cuteness is coming from the twins who seem to talking with each other in their own incoherent language with random words that they have learned. After dinner the phone rings which causes Callie to excuse herself from the table to answer it in the other room.
"Sofia, help me with dishes," I say as I get up and start to grab some of the plates. Sofia grabs the rest of the plates while I wash them and put them in the dishwasher. Together it takes about 10 minutes to clean the kitchen and dinner table. Once everything is clean Sofia goes back to sitting in her seat while I go to the freezer. "Do you guys want ice cream for dessert?" I say as I open the door.
"Ahhh," the twins say in unison.
I smile a little bit when hear that they still don't know how say ice cream. I take out three different flavors when I see that they are all out of their favorite flavor. "I have chocolate, vanilla and strawberry." I say as I set all three containers on the dining table.
"Stooperman?" William tries his best to say superman.
"Sorry little man, we don't have more right now. I'll remind mama to pick up some more when she goes out again."
William sinks down in his chair a little bit when I say we have no more superman ice cream. "Which one do you think melts the fastest?"
"Chalkowhit," Jackie says.
"Chocolate?" All three of them shake their heads yes. "I guess we should eat that first before it melts." I get four bowls and the four of us eat the rest of what is in the chocolate ice cream container.
Right when we finish is when Callie comes back into the room, "Sofia bedtime." Sofia doesn't say anything before she gets out of her chair and walks over towards Callie and the two make their way upstairs. After Sofia and Callie leave I clean the rest of the table and wipe twin's mouths which happen to be covered in chocolate.
Once everything is clean I turn to the twins and I'm greeted with two sets of very sleepy eyes. "Come on you two, let's get you bed." William is the first one I pick up on my left hip. The minute he is in my arms he lays his head on my shoulders and the same goes for Jackie when I put her on my right hip.
I make it to the top of stairs when Callie comes out of Sofia's room. She walks up and grabs a semi slumbering Jackie. Callie goes to Jackie's room while I go to William's room. I get him changed in to his Marvin the Martian onesie. After he is changed I spend the next 10 minutes pacing around holding him while he slowly falls asleep.
I place my son in his crib before I quietly exit his room. A quick glance to my left shows that Sofia is asleep and Callie is still in Jackie's room so I use that opportunity to leave before Callie can see me and retaliate against me.
I make to the front door to find that my keys are missing from their resting place in front pocket. I search all around the living before I go down to the basement. I'm at the bottom of stairs looking around basement when I see them right by the front of the couch. I walk and pick them up before I start to walk back to the stairs, but a sharp poke on the bottom of my foot gets my attention. I look down at my feet to see a small blue nametag. I pick it up and read the name, fluffy.
After staring at the nametag for a few seconds I look around basement and call out fluffy's name. I start to look high and low thinking that cat is somewhere downstairs. I'm looking behind one of the dollhouses when I hear Callie talking right behind me. "What are doing?"
I quickly turn around to face Callie while hiding the nametag in my back pocket. "Looking for my keys," I hold them up and give Callie a light smile. We just stand there facing each other for more than five minutes in silence before I say something. "Did you want me stay here, I could sleep in the guest bedroom or on the couch."
"I think you should go back to your boat," Callie refuses to make eye contact with me when she kicks me out of the house.
I just shake my head as I start to walk over towards the stairs. My left foot is on the first step when I stop and look over towards Callie who has her back towards me. "I know I'm serial killer, and I'll never be able to give you the answers that you want. But I have one question for you. I've been killing people for 26 years, and 7 of those years was spent with you. Being your friend, your girlfriend, your wife, and the mother to our kids, and during that time I never stopped killed. Me working late or working on a project at a friend's house was just an excuse to kill or stalk someone. My question for you is during those 7 years did you ever doubt for one second that I didn't love you, or if given the chance I would hurt you?"
Callie doesn't say anything as her shoulders drop and she starts to cry. "Calliope," I whisper as I walk towards her.
"Go away, Arizona."
"I really do love you."
"Go. Away." Callie yells at me. I don't say anything else as I take the hint and leave.
She's so close, yet so far away.