A/N Vivian and Arizona only in this chapter. No Callie until next chapter, but she does get several mentions! I hope you like it. There is progress being made, slowly.

Chapter 6

Arizona made her way to her office, checking her watch and scowling. She was late. She told Vivian to meet her in her office at 6 and her little trip to day-care before rounds had made her late. Rounding the corner, she stopped as she spotted Vivian waiting outside her office. The uniformed redhead was reading a notice board in the corridor and Arizona smiled at her stance, the same military stance her father had, standing erect, legs slightly parted , hands clasped behind the back. She always thought men looked so handsome in their uniforms, but a uniformed woman? Whooo boy! Arizona was a sucker for a uniform. She couldn't help but think of that Halloween a few years ago when Callie dressed up as a police officer and Sofia as a robber, with her black mask and black and white stripped sweater. But it was Callie in her uniform that Arizona thought of now , and after their little robber was put to bed, what Callie did with her hand cuffs and-

As if sensing her presence, Vivian turned and smiled as he saw Arizona. Raising her eyebrows she asked "Like what you see?"

Arizona gave a little start of surprise. Caught up in her memory she realised Vivian had probably mistaken the look on her face as a response to her and Arizona immediately felt guilty. She forced a laugh as she approached the redhead.

"it's that damn uniform, gets me every time."

The two women shared a warm embrace, Vivian leaning back slightly to kiss Arizona on the cheek. Arizona pressed her lips to Vivian's cheek in greeting and after a moment they stepped back from each other.

"Sorry I'm late, just me a minute to get my stuff" Arizona said, opening her office and removing her lab coat.

She quickly checked her phone, no messages, glanced through her emails, nothing urgent, before shutting down her computer. Vivian wandered around the office. She had been in it several times before but never had a chance to really look at it.

Arizona sat behind a modest sized pine desk that held her computer, stacks of files , what looked like medical journals, and two framed photos. One was of her daughter Sofia, who Vivian had yet to meet in person. The little girl's face took up most of the photo frame. Huge brown eyes danced with merriment and her grin exposed a gap where her bottom two teeth should be. The cherubic face was framed by long dark hair. There was no mistaking this little girl's relationship to Doctor Torres.

The other was of the Robbins family; Arizona, her parents and her brother. Both men stood on either side of the women, looking smart in their marine dress uniforms. The colonel had an arm around his wife, both beaming. Arizona stood next to her mother, her arm around her waist, while her other arm was wrapped around the waist of her brother beside her. He stood head and shoulders over his sister, an arm causally slung across her shoulders. Both siblings were laughing. Vivian swallowed the lump in her throat at this family image, so carefree and happy. Vivian guessed it was shortly after this that her brother left for what was to be his final tour of duty and upon his death, that happy family was shattered.

She had known men and women who died at war, knew many more survivors and with the nature of her current job, met their families. She knew the devastation these losses caused and her heart went out to the beautiful blonde sitting across from her. She studied Arizona's face as she squinted her eyes slightly at the screen, before shutting it down. Standing up, she looked across at Vivian and smiled that magical smile that Vivian loved to see.

"Ready? I made the reservation for 7 so we can go to the bar next door to the restaurant and have a drink first, unless you want to go to your hotel to get changed?"

Vivian stood too and shook her head."It's not too fancy a place is it? I think I should be okay unless you think I should change"

Vivian looked down at herself, used to wearing her uniform all day but now slightly worried if it was an upscale restaurant they were going to , she might need to dress up a bit more.

Arizona shook her head "Gosh no, you look wonderful and it's nothing fancy, just a nice mom and pop pizzeria I think you'd like"

"Okay, lets go"

They took a cab so both of them could indulge in a few glasses of wine. It had been a month since they'd seen each other and this was the complicated nature of their relationship that Arizona had mentioned. Though having met about three months ago, Vivian was only in town for one week a month.

During the first full week Vivian had been in Seattle, they had shared lunch twice and gone to dinner once. They had very little communication for the remainder of that month, only when making plans for Vivian's next visit. Unfortunately, the second week Vivian was in Seattle, Arizona had spent most of the week in Boston, consulting with a number of fetal cases and they got to meet briefly for a lunch outside the hospital.

The third week Vivian was in town, they had managed to meet for lunch three times and gone for dinner once. Those lunches were in the hospital cafeteria and each time they had been joined by one or more of Arizona's colleagues. If Vivian didn't know better she'd think they were conspiring to ensure she and Arizona got very little alone time together. They had only managed one dinner that week as Arizona had been on call and one evening a week was always kept for her family dinner with Sofia and Callie, no matter what.

This week Vivian was hoping to spend more time with Arizona. She wasn't stupid. She knew the blonde was having a hard time moving on from her ex. If she let herself really think about it, Vivian suspected Arizona Robbins was still in love with Callie Torres. And from her own interactions with Doctor Torres, she suspected the hot orhto doctor was not quite done with her ex-wife either. But they were divorced and she was smitten with the blonde doctor herself so she was going to do what she could to help her move on.

Settling into an empty booth in the bar , Arizona watched Vivian navigate through the tables with their drinks and couldn't help but notice the admiring looks the red head received from some of the other customers. She is beautiful she thought, and picked apart a beer mat, a nervous gesture, at the thought of them having to have that conversation tonight. Vivian had hinted she wanted more from Arizona than friendship and tonight was the night they were going to talk.

"One chardonnay for the lady" Vivian said with a smile, handing Arizona her glass of wine. She took her seat across form Arizona as she sipped her own vodka tonic.

''mmmm, I needed that " Vivian looked across at Arizona , who took several gulps of her drink.

"Whoa there, Arizona, you might want to slow things down or we won't be making it to dinner. Everything okay?" she asked

Arizona nodded setting her glass down, conscious of the embarrassed flush colouring her cheeks.

"I'm fine, just uh , thirsty" she answered.

Nodding slowly Vivian pointed to the shredded beer mat.

"And that?, you are not nervous or anything are you?

Looking at the beer mat, then into Vivian's eyes she saw the merriment and started to laugh

"Yes, I am nervous. You make me nervous" she said

Vivian's eyebrow rose sharply as her mouth opened in surprise

"I make you nervous, why?, I don't understand?"

Taking a deep breath Arizona steeled herself, looking Vivian straight in the eye. She was about to talk openly and candidly about her feelings, something she had not done in a long . long time.

"You make me nervous because I don't know what you want from me. Well, I do, I think I do , but I'm not there yet, I'm not ready and I'm worried you are expecting me to…" she broke off her ramble gesturing with her hands to indicate she was looking for the right words.

Vivian leaned forward and took Arizona's hands in her own, lowering them to the table.

"Take a breath Arizona" she said calmly with a small smile, relaxing as Arizona heaved a sigh and sat back.

"Let's finish our drinks and head for dinner. We can have our talk afterwards but I promise you I am not expecting anything from you. What we have now" she gestured between them "if that's all we have, it's okay. I'm not going to lie, I would really like more, but I'm not going to ruin this thing we have, this strange friendship, by pushing you into something you are not comfortable with"

She sat back and gulped her own drink, conscious of the intense blue eyes staring back at her, her own eyes drawn to Arizona's mouth where her lips were pressed together, a habit Vivian had noticed when Arizona was making a decision. Arizona nodded and smiled, a genuine one this time.

"Okay let's enjoy dinner and talk afterwards"

Despite the shaky start to the evening, Arizona ended the dinner in full-fledged laughter as Vivian relayed a story about her super religious mother inadvertently helping Vivian lose her virginity to her high school girlfriend.

"She would not allow me to go near any guys, not that I wanted to of course, but she did not know that. And she didn't want me to be lonely so she always encouraged me to have female friends over, stay in my room and left us alone, and so I got to lose it to Kelly Bader in my own bed with my mom watching TV downstairs!"

Vivian joined in Arizona's laughter, happy that the dinner had gone so well, considering their exchange at the bar.

"You didn't have that problem?" She asked the still smiling blonde.

"No, not at all. With my posters of Cindy Crawford, it was very obvious I was into girls so I was not allowed any sleepovers!" Arizona complained.

They were interrupted by their waiter asking if they needed anything else. Vivian shook her head and looked at Arizona for confirmation.

"Just the check please" Arizona smiled.

"So , you want to come back to my hotel?" Vivian asked casually.

"Umm, do you mind If we go back to my place?. " Arizona asked.

Vivian was a bit taken aback, having never been to Arizona's "Sure" .

"It's just that I had a long surgery this morning and I need to take my leg off. I do want us to finish our earlier conversation" Arizona confessed, rubbing at her thigh.

"Oh God, sure that's fine with me" Vivian was quick to reassure her.

At her apartment, Arizona quickly removed her leg and made a pot of coffee while Vivian checked out her living room. The apartment was very tastefully furnished, a palette of pastels and earth colours mixed. Several toys on shelves and numerous photos of a little brunette reminded Vivian that Arizona was a mother. She had never been in a relationship with a mother before.

Arizona handed Vivian her coffee and they sat side by side on the sofa.

"So, you are still in love with your ex-wife" Vivian stated matter-of- factly, smirking at the shocked face in front of her

"What? No I am not, why..why would you think that? Arizona asked, feeling a telling flush work its way over her cheeks.

"Let's see " Vivian pondered, as she started checking off her list with each finger " You've been divorced 2 years but you are still really awkward and uncomfortable around her, as if you are afraid she'll guess your true feelings, when you think no-one is looking you stare at her with this sad, longing, mournful look, you still put her before everyone else, except your daughter " she held up her hand as Arizona started to interrupt

"And you have a very hot red-head who wants to do very dirty things to you but you don't seem at all interested" Vivian smiled, showing Arizona she was not angry at her.

"So either you are in love with Callie or you are straight"

Arizona laughed incredulously "maybe I'm just not attracted to you"

Vivian shook her head and gestured to her own body "really? not attracted to this? how is that possible?"

Still laughing, and grateful that the redhead was taking a lighter approach to the situation, Arizona replied with a sarcastic bite to her tone "maybe it's your modesty and humility that's putting me off".

Vivian nudged Arizona with her shoulder "Come on Robbins, don't leave a girl hanging. I like you, a lot, I think I could like you an awful lot more if you were to let me, but I get the feeling I'm wasting my time."

Arizona shook her head apologetically "I'm sorry Vivian. You wouldn't be saying that if you knew the real me, how horrible I've been, what I've done to Callie, I cheated on her, do you know that? I mean what kind of person does that? Cheats on the most, wonderful, gorgeous person they've ever met?" her voice trailed off as her eyes burned with unshed tears.

Vivian shifted uncomfortably, unused to an obviously emotional Arizona. She had heard about the failings in Arizona's marriage, from nurses she had befriended who were only too eager to share.

"Hey, you are not a horrible person. People speak very highly of you, you know?" she offered but seeing no reaction to her words, she placed a cautionary arm around Arizona and pulled her close. Arizona stiffened briefly before allowing Vivian to bring their bodies closer together.

After a few moments, Arizona composed herself and pulled back from Vivian. Offering an embarrassed smile, she wiped her eyes.

"God, I'm so sorry, I don't know where that came from" she sniffed.

"Really? Maybe keeping everything bottled up inside might have something to do with it" Vivian admonished.

Arizona stood up to collect herself, folding her arms across herself, she turned to Vivian.

"I'm sorry if you think I've led you on. I did want to try , you're the first person I even thought about moving on with but …" she shook her head and cleared her throat "I'm so sorry".

Vivian stood and stepped up to Arizona, placing her hands on Arizona's shoulders "I'm sorry too, but I don't want to be anyone's second choice so I understand. We are still going to be friends right?" she asked a little uncertainly.

"Of course, of course, if that's what you want. I mean I'd really like it , but if you're uncomfortable…" Arizona pursed her lips together. She liked Vivian, had enjoyed their friendship and yes, even found her attractive. Maybe it was because she liked her so much as a person, she did not want to start a relationship she know would not go anywhere.

"No I'm not uncomfortable, I might try and make the moves on you when I'm drunk though. Now that we've agreed to be friends, my first act of friendship is going to be to help you get your ex back"

"Vivian" Arizona protested "That ship has sailed and sunk I'm afraid"

Vivian finished her coffee and picked up her jacket "No, it may have hit an iceberg but we are launching the lifeboats. I'd better call a taxi and head back to my hotel. See you tomorrow for lunch to work on the plan".

"Wait, why don't you stay the night, it's late " Arizona offered.

Vivian raised a suggestive eyebrow.

"You can sleep on the couch, It is quite comfortable" Arizona drawled .

After giving Vivian something to sleep in and a pillow and blankets for the couch, Arizona headed for her own bedroom. Closing the door she rested her forehead briefly against the wooden panel. "What have I let myself in for?" She pondered before heading for her bed.

A/N Just couldn't go through with having them fall for someone else, sorry, I did try but the Calzona heart says No . Let's try and get these two back together.