Chapter 5
Back at Grey Sloan Alex, Amelia and Bailey had run to security intent on searching the tapes for Arizona. After waking the security guard, they began searching the tapes.
They found her just an hour after they left her staggering out of the ICU alone.
"So, we know she left of her own accord" Alex said, semi relieved. The door opened, April and Meredith entered. April like Alex had gone to check on her friend, the nurses filling her in on her escape, letting her know the others had gone to security on the way she'd bumped into Meredith filling her in.
"She has pulled her drain out" Amelia noticed, "Looks like weakness to the right arm and leg, see she is limping" she pointed out.
"Where does she go from here?" Alex questioned the security guard, he pulled up a different angle.
"It looks like she checks the patient list in the ICU" Bailey said, "Then the OR board?"
"What is she looking for?" Alex wondered,
"Did she seem confused when she woke up?" Meredith asked,
"She was slurring her words so much it was hard to tell" Amelia replied, "I didn't get time to do a full exam because we all got paged 9-11"
"Where is she going now?" Alex asked as she disappeared off screen.
"The freight elevator" Meredith guessed, "It doesn't have cameras".
"But we have cameras outside, let me check" the security guard suggested he pulled up an outside view. They saw Arizona stagger off site.
"We need to call the police" Bailey suggested stepping out to do just that.
"That's in the direction of her old apartment, she had to be going there" Alex guessed. Joe's was the opposite way as was the staff car park.
"Let's go" Bailey ordered. All 4 Doctors stood rushing out of the security office heading towards the apartment.
Outside Alex knocked, a young man with blonde hair with blue streaks answered, he was dressed in just boxers.
"Its 4.30," he pointed out rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sorry, this is urgent," Alex apologized "we are looking for our friend, she left ICU and wondered off" Alex explained, "We think she might have come here?" he asked.
"Yeah, that was hours ago, she was looking for Cathy and Mark?"
"Mark?" Meredith repeated, alarmed, Mark had been dead for years. Why was Arizona looking for him?
"Well M…k" he mimicked her slur.
"Memory loss?" Bailey guessed, "Did she say where she was going next?" she asked,
"No, she left, we tried to follow but the elevators door closed before we got there, I took the stairs, but she was gone" he explained.
"And you didn't call anyone?" April raged,
"Hey, you guys lost her" he defended, "Maybe if you'd been watching her closer, she wouldn't have wondered off, anyway that was hours ago, she is long gone" He yawned "Good luck finding her" he said closing the door.
"What now?" Alex asked as Bailey's phone rang, she took it, hanging up everyone was waiting,
"That was Steve," at their blank looks she explained "From security, he has more footage he thinks we should see" she explained.
They raced down the corridor back to the hospital. In the security office they gathered around the screen,
"I have your girl returning to the hospital here" Steve said playing the tape, they watched as Arizona returned to the hospital, entering the morgue,
"What's she looking for?" Meredith pondered out loud, they saw her with the patient who had started this watching as Arizona carefully stroked her face, before zipping the black bag up.
"She then goes to the NICU" Steve said, pressing play again, they watched as she ducked the nurse slipping into the NICU. She checked every incubator lingering over one, again gently stroking the glass.
"That's the one Sofia was in" Alex recall, that had been painful for everyone involved.
"Why is she looking for Sofia there?" April pondered, "Unless she can't remember,"
"The crash, oh my God, she was talking about a truck hitting her, I thought it was a joke, but she was hit by a truck, 7 years ago" Meredith recalled, "Callie was in the ICU, Sofia was in the NICU".
"Amnesia" Amelia diagnosed, "She is now trying to piece her life together, I'm guessing she is focusing on trying to find Callie and Sofia."
"How bad is it?" Alex asked.
"We have no way of knowing, not until I can examine her" Amelia explained, "I'm more worried about the bleed, she removed the drain that was draining the excess pressure,"
"What does that mean?" April asked, while she'd done neuro placements before this was beyond her.
"I don't know, she may be fine, or she may suffer a re-bleed, seizures and worsening brain damage." Amelia said gravely, "we need to find her".
"Okay so leaves the NICU and goes to the car park, the last I have of her is driving left out of the hospital" Steve said.
"That's not in the direction of her house" Alex pointed out, "Where are you going?" he asked the frozen image of the car.
"She has 11 hours on us, we need to split up if we are going to find her, Bailey explained, "I'll update the police, Karev you and Kepner search her home, I'll page Deluca to let you in, he can tell if anything is missing, Shepard, Grey start thinking of where else she would have gone, maybe Teddy's old place or Joe's" Bailey suggested,
"Someone needs to tell Callie" Alex pointed out, Bailey sucked in a breath, this was when being the chief sucked,
"I'll do that too" she offered not looking forwards to the conversation Callie was going to go ape, she didn't even know Arizona had been hurt.
They split up Bailey whipping out her phone first calling the police, they offered to put out an APB for the car but had had no luck finding her. The easy call done she dialed Callie.
"Bailey, I was about to call, I've been ringing Arizona for the last few days, but she hasn't picked up, is she alright?" Callie asked worriedly,
"There was an accident," Miranda began to explain,
"Oh my God is she okay. I can be on the next flight out," Callie offered straight away.
"No, she wasn't conscious afterwards, we took her for a CT scan it showed a large subdural bleed. She had a seizure. Shepard and Grey operated and induced a coma. They reduced the sedation yesterday morning" Miranda paused,
"And, is she okay?" Callie asked, Miranda could tell from her voice she was crying,
"When she woke up, she was slurring her words, we couldn't understand her."
"When was that?" Callie interrupted.
"Yesterday afternoon"
"And now, how is she now? Is she alive?"
"We think so".
"What do you mean you think so, she is either alive or she isn't" Callie screamed, her emotions were everywhere after finding out her ex-wife had been hurt days ago and nobody had bothered to tell her.
"There was an emergency, 32 badly injured children, every OR was full the ER overflowed into the clinic," Bailey began, "It seems Arizona got up and left, we last have her driving out of the hospital."
"You lost her! How do you lose someone from the Neuro ICU?"
"She used her pass to get out, we have everyone searching, but we think she's lost some of her memories," Bailey explained patiently.
"What? Which memories?"
"Well, she went to your old apartment, and she was searching the morgue and the NICU, before the surgery she was muttering about being hit by a truck" Bailey explained. Callie dropped her phone her hands shaking, so much had changed in the 7 years since they'd hit the truck. Mark, Arizona's leg, the affair, the miscarriage, the divorce, the custody case.
"I'm flying back" she decided, "I'll fetch Sofia from school she needs someone who was there to help her remember, she needs me".
"Okay, text me your flight details I'll send someone to collect you" Miranda promised. "One more thing, where would she go, to find you, if you weren't at the apartment or the hospital where else would she go?"
"There was a café we went to for breakfast, called the happy egg, Joe's, erm the baseball field we went there a few times, Teddy's" Callie suggested. Miranda wrote down her suggestions, there were a few there she hadn't thought of,
"I'll see you soon" Callie promised hanging up, Bailey took the phone texting Meredith and Amelia adding the extra destinations to their search. She took a moment saying a prayer to God that Arizona would be found and that she would be okay.
Alex, Andrew, and April arrived at Arizona's house,
"No car" Alex muttered disappointed, he was hoping it had been that simple, that they'd arrive at the house to find the car and Arizona tucked up in bed.
Entering the house DeLuca went first,
"Someone has been here" he commented, "the photo is missing, the one of Arizona, Callie, Sofia and Mark" he walked into the house. He ignored Arizona's room, he never went in there, April went inside but wasn't familiar with Arizona's clothes to notice if anything was missing.
"My door is open, I always leave it closed, Arizona she says that boys' room's smell," he shrugged, entering the kitchen his eyes scanning across the room.
"The postcard from Sofia has gone,"
"What was on it?" Alex asked, Andrew frowned concentrating, it had been on the fridge for 6 weeks now, but he hadn't read it that much,
"Err, Mommy, New York is great, we saw Wicked, I like the park, I love you Sofia" Andrew paraphrased.
"Hey, the photo of Arizona and Sofia from the wall has gone too" April called from the living room.
"She took the photos and the postcard. She is looking for them" Alex summarized.
"The postcard, it had Callie's address on it" Andrew recalled,
"New York address?" Alex confirmed,
"Yeah, you don't think she'd go there, do you?" he asked, Alex and April exchanged a look, they'd been there when Arizona and Callie had crashed into the truck, they had seen the strength of their love. There was no doubt in their minds Arizona would move heaven and earth to see Callie again.
"I think that's exactly where she is going" Alex said.
"Err guys" April said, they ran into the living room, she held up a note pad.
They could see the start had been a shopping list,
Milk,
Eggs
Bread
Wine
Then it changed from Arizona's extremely neat writing to writing that appeared to be from a 3 year old.
S0ff3a 6 7 TiM3 ap3rtmat 3
Mark, L3x13 D3R3c D3ad but Sh3ppard in 0r
L3G crash
Wh3r3 Ca113 and S0ff3a
He got out his phone calling Bailey.
"Bailey" she answered,
"Robbins has got Callie's address we think she is heading there now" Alex told her, urgently, "We found a note pad, her writing its awful, it's not Robbins at all".
"I'll call the airport find out if she has boarded any flights, you head over there" Bailey offered, she hung up the phone calling SeaTac, she spoke to the reservations desk they refused to disclose the information, even when Bailey pulled out the big guns. Frustrated Bailey hung up the phone calling Callie in New York.
"Has she been found?" Callie asked as soon as she dialled,
"No, but she has your address, we think she is heading your way" Bailey explained, "we need you to stay put in case she turns up".
There was a pause, as Callie debated her options.
"Okay but call me if you find her, please" Callie begged. "Please I need to know everything that's going on".
"Same" Bailey said, she conferenced called Meredith, adding her to the conversation with Callie.
"Any luck?" She asked,
"Joe hasn't seen her, we are at the café now, but her car isn't here" Meredith said, "What about Alex?"
"She isn't home, but she has been there, we think she has gone to find Callie" Bailey explained,
"Do you think she'll fly?" Meredith asked surprised,
"Her memories might be gone but she could instinctively react to things without knowing why she is scared" Amelia joined in speaking through Meredith's phone.
"Its several days of driving to New York!" Bailey exclaimed,
"Yeah, but she won't be considering time, or hunger, she could be extremely task focused, or she could forget why she is driving and disappear." Amelia explained, "She could have seizures at the wheel, or she could continue to bleed if that happens the memory loss might get worse, she might not even remember her own name." Amelia summarized. "We need to find her".
"When she gets back, she is on so much scut" Bailey decided, she wasn't sure she could put attendings who were also board members on scut, but she was going to try. Her phone rang again, it was the police,
"We have found her car!"
So the Grey Sloan team are starting to put the pieces together but will they find her, or will Arizona find Callie first?