`AN -

Alright you crazy bunch, I have for you what will probably be the last chapter of the week. Seen as I have had so many reviews on the last two chapters and have had a fair few pm's I thought I would be generous and give you one more for the week.

I finally got some sleep last night but have been working on the chapter 41 all day and almost have it finished. It's been a bit of a struggle, I have a lot of idea's for this fic, but dont want to ram all of the drama in chapter after chapter, which means there will be quite a few filler chapters of fluff in between to pad the story out a bit. But know, at any moment, anything can happen... bam, when you least expect it ;o)

Anyways, enjoy this chapter and please if you can spare a moment to leave a review, please do so. A lot of time, energy and effort goe's into writing, its not just as simple as having an idea and putting it down on 'paper', theres the fact checking, the proof reading, the rewriting and all on top of the original typing out of the story. Trying to create something out of nothing, and trying to finish it... for me thats the hardest part. It's exciting to start with and the stories just flow but its the winding down and completing it that really takes the effort. So if you can, for me or for other authors, just drop a note to say Thanks... Good Job... Bad Job... I like this... I hate that... ask for spoilers (You might just get a pm with some ;o)!) ask for another chapter... hell ask me to bend over backwards and I will if I can.

Thanks for reading.

Love always

AL xxx

-oOo-

As noon approached, the group congregated around the wall of cars bidding their farewells to Fiona. They had pulled the corner house's car from the garage, finding it with three quarters of a tank, they had filled it with bottles of water, tins of food, a camping stove from Callie's garage and some spare clothes as well as a few knives and an axe. Fiona had taken Derek's advice and had taken a long shower, washed her hair and towelled it dry before getting dressed and joining Derek and Mark in the corner house.

Now it was time to go, as she jumped into the car she wound the window down and waved to the group sadly as she tried to hold back the tears, these were people she had survived the fall with, people who had helped her get to safety and here she was leaving them behind not knowing if she would ever see them again, more than likely not.

"If you get stuck or it's too bad out there, make your way back here" Callie advised as she handed the ginger woman a map book "We will be here waiting for you and your family"

"Thank you Callie, for everything. Take care of them all" Fiona said with a crack in her voice.

"I will try my hardest" Callie promised as she shook hands with Fiona.

The group watched as Mark pulled the land rover away from the wall, making a gap big enough for Fiona's car to get through, As Fiona drove through the gap, she waved her hand out of the window, not slowing to glance at the group anymore... if she did she knew she would change her mind and stay, so she powered forward and drove off into the distance.

Mark moved the car back into place and exited the vehicle. "And then there was eight again"

"Let's move away from this wall before we draw attention to ourselves" Derek said cautiously, scanning the horizon for signs of movement.

Ben hugged into Arizona's side as they began the short walk back to Callie's house, it was a sombre walk, each person lost in their own thoughts about how they had lost a member of their group probably to never be seen again. Millie grabbed hold of Addison's hand tightly as she fought against the tears.

"Well, I think it's time for some lunch, don't you?" Callie asked the group, watching as each member nodded sombrely. "Come on guys, she will be back, with more survivors too. She didn't survive this long for nothing"

"Callie's right, we have to have hope or she stands no chance" Mark added, clapping Callie's shoulder in support.

The group ate a lunch made up of food pilfered from both neighbours fridges, cheeses, ham's, fruit and vegetables. It was a bit of an odd mixture but they were doing everything they could to not waste any food.

"What are our plans for the afternoon?" Derek said once they had all finished eating. Fiona's absence left a gaping hole at the table with no one wished to comment on, but everyone could feel.

"I was thinking" Addie started, sighing in amused irritation as Derek threw an 'Uh Oh' out. "Shut up you. I was thinking that we should use up the rest of the vegetables from the neighbours fridges before they go to ruin. They are already at least a week old so they can't have much life left in them"

"Good thinking" Mark smiled at the red head, Callie noticed the small sneer that Derek threw in his direction and wondered what that was about, she would have to ask Arizona later on in private.

"There's a few more houses on the estate that I have keys for. Perhaps it's time we started on emptying those houses too?" Callie offered as she glanced around the table.

"How will we get it all back here?" Arizona asked curiously.

"Well, there is a wheelbarrow in the shed out back, I'm willing to bet there will be one in the neighbours yards too. If not, we can always fill the back of the crew cab if needed" Callie answered as she glanced at Arizona and noticed that the blonde had once again braided her hair and looked all kinds of sexy and cute.

"Well while you guys do that, I will watch Ben and Millie and wash up these dishes" Addison offered and laughed as everyone smiled in relief at not having to do the dishes.

"Ok then, let's get cracking. Callie, do you want to show us on your maps which houses we are working with?" Derek asked, taking control of the situation.

Everyone bar Addison, Ben and Millie made their way through to the home office and crammed into the small space. Arizona couldn't help but glance at the professional looking photos of complete gardens which adorned three quarters of the walls in the office. On the final wall was a light box which sat on the wall above a desk with a laptop on. She smiled when she saw that it wasn't an apple laptop, she couldn't stand apple products and usually turned her nose up at all of those pretentious fools around her who would spend thousands of dollars on apple merchandise just to scream at people their wealth. It was like back in two-thousands when everyone had a blackberry... where were they now? Gone and defunct like apple is now. Worthless pieces of crap that aren't worth anything anymore, not even the money spent on buying them, they were completely worthless.

Arizona couldn't even remember where her Samsung was. It was likely in the pocket of her lab coat which was discarded in the cafeteria back at the hospital. It would likely be dead now, just a useless item in the tomb that is Seattle Grace hospital.

Arizona realised that she had been lost in her own thoughts so tuned back into what Callie was saying, she was pointing to half a dozen houses circled in red on the maps on the light box. Beneath each of the houses hung a key hanging from a sticky backed hook. She couldn't help but be amazed at the planning and coordination of Callie's operation. She had really put a lot of thought and effort into it. On the desk, next to the discarded laptop lay several containers full of single keys, each box labelled with a street or several streets.

"I think we should start with the houses nearest and see what we can find before spreading out" Callie finally said after allowing her companions to take in everything.

"Sounds like a plan" Derek replied, glancing to his group who nodded in agreement.

"About those houses that are locked. I'm not proud of this but in my younger years I learned how to pick a lock. If you have some bobby pins around I could work on some of the locks. If all else fails then I can look for a way in by breaking a window near a door or one big enough for me to sneak in" Mark offered, smiling big when everyone looked at him with a shocked face.

"You know how to break and enter?" Derek asked incredulously.

"You don't know everything about me" Mark laughed as he clapped Derek on the shoulder.

"I have some bobby pins in the en-suite. Help yourself to them all" Callie offered, once again noticing a look that shadowed Derek's face. When the ragtag group had arrived, Derek had introduced the taller man as his best friend but there was definitely something amiss between the pair.

"I have an idea" Jim announced. "I noticed that a lot of the houses on this street are solar powered. Now granted the sun isn't always shining in Seattle, but once the power goes out we will be relying on those solar panels to keep the fridges and freezers going. My suggestion would be to move the white goods from houses without solar panels and line them up inside the houses closest to this house in the garage where its cool"

"Jim, what is it you did before the collapse happened?" Callie asked with interest.

"I was an electrician" Jim answered bashfully, almost like he was downplaying his role in society. Being around confident surgeons could probably do that for you though.

"Well that's a handy career choice, we are lucky to have you with us" Derek grinned at the geeky looking man stood on the opposite side of the room.

"Jim, I'm going to draw some rough plans of the houses in this section of the estate, I would like for you to mark up which ones have solar panels and that you think would be the best to use. We will cross reference those with ones that we have access too, and those that we don't. Then we will get Mark to try and work his magic on those houses which we are locked out of" Callie said confidently and Arizona found herself mentally drooling over the brunette.

"Ok, while Callie sorts the plans out; Jim, Mark and I will go and source some wheelbarrows. Arizona, could you find those bobby pins Callie was talking about and tell Addison what the plan is?" Derek said with a finality to his voice.

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement with Derek's plan then moved out of the office to carry out their tasks leaving Callie and Arizona alone.

"So this is where the magic happens?" Arizona asked as she watched Callie pin some plain paper up on the light box and began tracing out the houses and numbering them up.

"Yep, this is my special place" Callie smiled over her shoulder at the beautiful blonde. "This is where all my dreams are put onto paper... well a laptop" Callie laughed at herself.

"Well, it's very impressive" Arizona mused as she watched the Latina work.

"This is nothing, this is just tracing some squares on a piece of paper, the real magic happens on the laptop when you start with a blank space and start adding the clients brief into it... its mesmerising to do" Callie trailed off and blushed slightly, God what was it about this woman that made her ramble and blush.

"It's amazing what you do Callie, don't diminish it" Arizona smiled softly at the blushing brunette, she didn't think Callie realised just how beautiful she was, or how talented she was. The brunette, she had found, was extremely modest and level-headed. To have come from a wealthy upbringing and to have shied away from that wealth and to live a modest life in a house that was built with that modest life in mind. Callie Torres, in Arizona's mind, was a remarkable woman. Now she just needed to work out if she was reading the signals right and Callie did have some interest in her. Was she being unrealistic? Here she was thinking about girls when she should be focussing on survival. But she couldn't help herself there was something about Callie that was drawing her in.

"Arizona, are you coming?" Derek called out from around the door pulling the blonde from her musings.

"Sure, I'll see you out there Callie?" Arizona asked, drinking in the vision of the brunette working one final time. Callie turned and smiled at the blonde, it wasn't a toothy grin, it wasn't even a super magical smile, but there was something about it that made butterflies flutter in Arizona's stomach.

"I'll see you soon" Callie offered, noticing the blondes cheeks colour slightly before she turned and exited the room. Could it be that the blonde was interested in her as well?

Once everyone's tasks were complete they reconvened in the dining area and sat around the table discussing the upcoming plans. Addie was on babysitting duty and would be preparing the vegetables to make some stews that would go in the freezers that the rest of the gang would be bringing back to store in Callie's garage, Callie would be clearing some space and getting rid of the junk she would now never use. the plan was to dump these items in the cars on the wall to weight them down and make them more secure.

Mark would start working on trying to break and enter those houses that were locked with Derek there to back him up in case there was any infected locked in the rooms whilst Arizona and Jim would work on emptying the unlocked houses food into the four wheel barrows they had found earlier.

With a plan in place, they set to their jobs and before long were working up a sweat as they hefted items into different places. Ben, bored of cutting vegetables with Addison, had ventured into the garage to help Callie and although there wasn't much heavy lifting he could do with his leg, on the advice of Arizona, he sat in the back of the crew cab and shifted items about to make more space. Callie was thankful for the help as it made her job easier and within two hours she had already unloaded the crew cab twice.

The garage was now looking quite sparce without all of her junk laid around, but it was a job well done. She and Ben walked to the neighbouring house slowly, as Ben limped slightly, to find Arizona and Jim finishing up on emptying the freezer into the final wheel barrow. Ben guided them as they manoeuvred the now empty fridge freezer into Callie's garage and when they realised they wouldn't have enough electrical points to plug it in Ben appeared with an extension cord he had found in the neighbours garage.

Finally Derek and Mark appeared with sweat soaked shirts and joined in the garage with the remainder of the group. Deciding that they had accomplished a lot for the day. They set too filling the fridge and freezer back up with the goods Jim and Arizona had filled into the wheel barrows and selected several larger items that they thought they would enjoy for dinner. The main one was a massive joint of roasting beef that Ben had found and almost drooled over.