A\N: Please, continue spreading awareness about what is going on in Palestine, Congo and Sudan at the moment and calling for a permanent and lasting ceasefire. Check out free palestine, free congo and free sudan hashtags on social media and accounts like wizard_bisan1 and azaiazamotaz9 on Instagram and twitter
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The guest review: Haha, yeah, you are right. Arizona kinda can't catch a break at the moment
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First she took Herman's job and her eyesight. Then her life, for which she was under investigation. Now she was viciously scheming taking Dr. Karev's job and his office on top of it. Or at least so Arizona heard, inevitably catching some bits and pieces from the hospital gossip mill.
First and foremost, she didn't need anybody's freaking office. The investigation, though… Jackson was keeping his promise to some extent, a 'few months' had now turned into 2-3, which was no update at all when she thought about it for more than a second, so she tried not to, having to physically stop herself from solely betting her hope on that obscure date just as she had to physically stop herself from bothering Jackson.
As far as the job thing went…
"Barton is pissed," Alex declared at lunch a day after she'd circled the . in his note, which she then pinned to the bread box before emptying it into the bin and adding BREAD! at the bottom, his tray coming into Arizona's view first.
Sure enough their colleague marched into the cafeteria moments later making very special effort to not look in their direction. Arizona snickered into her coffee. Alex snickered openly and deliberately.
"The hell is dude's problem."
"Well, I've been back for a day and already leading a surgery, am I not?" Arizona sighed
"Because it's your kid," Alex remarked matter-of-factly. "You would've been in on it even if you were still…" he trailed off, picking at his sandwich. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Arizona waved off, taking a sip of her coffee, throat suddenly dry. "Wish Barton didn't have the satisfaction of knowing I didn't exactly choose to get temporarily suspended, though."
"He's a dud." Alex shrugged, a few people around them stopping mid bite.
"Stop," mouthed Arizona, picking up her trash. "You know he is a good surgeon."
"Dud," he mimicked smugly in reply.
Arizona didn't have time for that. She needed to go do a consult on Eddie.
When she entered the NICU, Callie was already there, talking to Glenda quietly. Nodding at them to continue, she started the exam. For a 34-week old with a background of fetal surgery and hydrops, he was faring pretty well, which meant,
"that we can go in first thing tomorrow morning and remove his tailbone. Has Dr. Torres walked you through the orthopaedic side?"
"Yes… I mean we don't need our tailbones anyway. And his might give him cancer."
"That's right." Callie said, closing Eddie's chart. "I'll see you tomorrow morning. Dr. Robbins."
"Dr. Torres." Glancing at Callie as she left the room, Arizona closed the incubator, taking off her gloves. "Try to get some sleep tonight," she said. Glenda nodded, both women knowing fully well she won't comply.
Free to go Arizona turned to leave but froze, surprising even her own self, unable to take another step. There was something else, hanging in the air. And Arizona had to push all the liability crap Jackson had planted into her mind as far away as she could to address it.
"I'm sorry we lied to you about Dr. Herman."
"You had to," Glenda said quietly, looking down on Eddie. "And I… had my suspicions. You are gonna be taking over for her, right?" She looked up when there was no reply, their eyes meeting. Arizona felt like she was chewing through a mouthful of glass. She didn't have a definite answer to that question anymore.
"Well, it's still–"
If she hadn't known better she would've thanked the universe for her pager going off right that moment. But she worked with sick kids so she just apologised and left, hurrying to the pit.
"What do you got, Edwards?" she asked, pulling the curtain aside.
Edwards had a little girl, not much older than Sofia, breathing hard and fast even with the oxygen mask on, beads of sweat glistening on her pale forehead.
"Millie Reid, 4, started to experience trouble breathing earlier today. There was also–" Millie tore the mask off suddenly and surgered forward, hurling.
" –vomiting." Stephanie finished unabashedly, providing a sick bowl just in time. It didn't escape Arizona's attention that some of the contents were of light pinkish color, "Edwards, get this to the lab." Her hand reached for the stethoscope.
"She was fine yesterday," a woman with eyes just as green but not as foggy as Millie's right now, said as she rubbed the girl's back soothingly. "She's usually the first to wake up but today she slept in. And when I woke her up, she was really cranky and still sleepy. Then this awful cough started…"
"Okay, I'm just gonna take a quick listen." Arizona smiled at Millie, pressing warmed up metal to her heaving chest, crossed with itch marks.
There was definitely some fluid built up in there.
"What like… like pneumonia?"
"We won't know for sure until we get a chest C.T. Dr. Edwards will take Millie up and we'll update you as soon as we know more," Arizona promised.
"Pulmonary edema," she sighed 15 minutes later, studying the scans.
"So the mom was right?"
"Looks like it. But we still need to find the exact cause…" Arizona clicked her tongue, frowning. "Get those samples rush–"
"She's loosing consciousness!"
"Okay, let's pull her out of there!"
"Wait… wait there are more than like two types of pneumonia?" Mrs. Reid stammered, standing outside of Millie's hospital room, hugging her own shoulders tightly.
"There are. And Millie appears to have the chemical one."
"Chemical? But how…? We eat organic food only!"
"No, no, your food is almost certainly unrelated to any of this. Can you think of anywhere she might have been exposed to chlorine?"
"Well, she… had a swimming lesson yesterday morning," the woman said, eyes glued to the web of various tubes and wires weaved around her daughter's body. "My husband took her. But he never said there was something out of the ordinary. And she seemed fine."
"Most likely there was some accident," Arizona started tentatively. "In kids even as little as 10 seconds under water is enough to cause damage."
"So… so what now?"
"We've drained all the excess fluid from her lungs. Cartecosteroids should help with the inflammation. When the swelling improves we will try to slowly wake her up and see if she's breathing over the vent," Arizona paused, knowing this is more than a parent could take in.
"She wanted to do karate," Mrs. Reid whispered. "But swimming is better for your health, for you posture. Also it's more 'girly' or whatever." She shook her head, stifling a hysterical laugh.
"Mrs. Reid–"
"Diane."
"Diane–"
"Can I stay with her?" Diane interrupted, taking in a deep breath and all her emotions along with it. A mother's ability.
"Of course." Arizona nodded, pulling the door open for her. "Dr. Edwards will set up a cot for you and monitor Millie 24/7," she said, knowing it was more than possible Diane barely heard her. She watched the woman sit down into the chair at Millie's bedside, her hand immediately squeezing a smaller one.
….their kid is right there, so they can hold them close and hope for the best. The cat's on the roof.
Arizona blinked. Did she really say it was easier? She needed to breathe, without cigarettes this time. Just cool March air filling her lungs.
"Oh my god, Arizona Robbins?!"
Her next supposedly freshening breath hitched. That voice…
"Heather." Casting a nervous glance at the state of her scrub pants as she really didn't want Heather knowing more about her than was obvious, she forced on a smile and turned around reluctantly, coming face to face with her ex, Callie's ex, their mutual ex. Whoever the hell she was.
"I had no idea you worked here! What a coincidence!"
"Yeah, such a lucky one," Arizona muttered, the god awful ink mix of H&A surfacing from – thanks to Callie or, rather, the queer dating scene of Seattle – not nearly deep enough pits of her mind.
"Small world…" Heather continued to play up the excitement, her smile making Arizona's lunch swirl in her stomach. They really didn't have to do this, not after Arizona fell victim to a pair of steak knives, but Heather seemed to be finding special enjoyment in this falsely polite exchange. Arizona for her part could not make herself move.
"By the way, do you happen to know one Dr. Torres? Callie?" she asked, Arizona choking on air again. Heather pretended she didn't notice, innocently waiting for an answer to her not so innocent question.
Arizona's thumb found her empty ring finger, weird relief flooding her mind. She said Callie. She didn't say… "Yeah, we've… met."
"Met?" Heather repeated sympathetically. "Well, just between us," she leaned in too close for Arizona's liking, winking conspiratorially "You are missing out. She's a very good kisser." Arizona felt her head spinning, an almost three weeks old kiss tingling on her lips. She felt an overwhelming desire to scream in Heather's smug face that she in fact had kissed Calliope Torres, she had everything with Calliope Torres, because she was her… oh, right . There was one significant hitch in that plan.
"Mama!" not yet completely recovered from her inner monologue, Arizona blinked, her eyes moving to the hospital entrance, more precisely to her daughter, stubbornly trying to get her tiny hand out if her mother's grip. Callie's eyes were so wide Arizona was surprised she didn't let go simply out of shock.
"Would you look at that!" catching up to the updated circumstances immediately, Heather looked between them, ever so pleased. "You know, I'm not even mad you lied to me, this is even better. We should all meet up sometime. Maybe at a tattoo salon? I'll be make sure to bring steak knives for afterwards." She winked again, raising her perfect eyebrows and started to walk away with an annoying exaggerated spring in her step, leaving a dumbstruck Arizona behind. Maybe she really was the first sign blonde women should become a big no. Too bad she had dismissed the universe's warning so carelessly.
"Mama!" as they got closer Callie finally let Sofia run loose and now she was hugging her Mama's leg, impatient for some attention.
"Hey sweetie," coming out of her trance, Arizona looked right down, avoiding Callie's eyes. Considering Callie was trying to do exactly the same, it wasn't that hard. "Going home?"
"That your fwrend, Mama?" Sofia and her curious spongy mind decided she would be choosing the topic, looking in the direction Heather disappeared in with an adorable little frown, her expression resembling Callie's, who's masked a surprised yelp at the question, almost perfectly.
"That's mama's… yeah."
"Like Zola?"
"No, no, not like Zola," Arizona denied quickly. "Because you and Zola are best friends. And we are not."
"Mamí is not your best fwrend anymore," Sofia declared matter-of-factly, looking between them for any kind of protest. "Who's your best friend then, Mama?"
Leave it to your three year old kid to throw you into an existential crisis. Why the hell wasn't Callie hurrying anywhere?
"Oh, well, it's… Dr. Alex." Sofia nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.
"Sof, we should get going…"
"Can Mama walk to the car with us?" Sofia asked, Arizona secretly happy she wasn't picking up on the awkward atmosphere.
"Of course," Callie said as Sofia's hand slipped into Arizona's. Minutes later the girl was safely buckled up in her car seat.
"I love you," Arizona whispered, leaving a soft kiss on her forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Love you too, Mama!" Sofia smacked her lips to Arizona's cheek, her little fingers tangling in her hair. Smiling Arizona booped her nose and shut the door, turning around. Callie wasn't rushing to get behind the wheel and she didn't like it.
"Arizona–"
"Can we put a pin on starting swimming lessons for now?" Arizona asked, perfectly aware that while being concerned she was also kind of deflecting, which really wasn't making her feel like the best mother ever, but oh well.
"What?"
"Just… Can she maybe do karate or somethingt until she gets bigger? If she wants to, of course."
"Why–?
"Just think about it, okay? See you in surgery."
Arizona did not sleep well that night, kept up by heavy thoughts about the kiss, which seemed so close yet so far away in time, and Heather's scandalous offer and what not. Even swimming lessons. She woke up feeling exhausted and… suffocating.
Coming in, she scanned the horizon warily, looking out for one particular face. Luckily, instead she saw Amelia, walking in a leather jacket, a cup of coffee in hand. They acknowledged each other silently and walked together for a bit, before going their separate ways with two identical goodbye nods.
She and Callie came towards the NICU from the opposite ends of the hallway, their eyes meeting properly for the first time since yesterday. During that brief moment they had unilaterally decided to leave all the awkwardness behind the doors of the NICU. Or almos all of it anyway.
Glenda evidently had not closed her eyes even for one second the previous night.
"We will update you through the entire surgery," Arizona promised, wheeling Eddie out, game face on.
She needed the surgery to go well. And it did finished in a little over an hour with Callie resecting the coccyx flawlessly, not a single number on the monitors dropping or increasing beyond normal. What Arizona also needed was no awkward conversations after they've had Eddie taken back to the NICU and for that reason she opted to use the stairs instead of an elevator.
"Arizona!" Maybe she needed a teleport. Callie caught up to her, both of them knowing Arizona hurried out of the NICU a little bit too obviously.
"So I asked Sofia…"
"Yeah?"
"Apparently she doesn't want swimming anymore anyway."
"Of course," Arizona chuckled, unwittingly making a mental note of the fact that in an elevator they could have at least stood, glued to the opposite corners. "What does she want then?"
"Horseback riding or soccer. She hasn't decided yet, but soccer is currently a little higher in the ranks."
"Well, we could look for sections that accept 4 year olds since it's April already. Maybe ask Alex to put a goalpost in the back yard."
"She will be thrilled. As long as she doesn't change her mind."
"Well, he's certainly not building a pony stable."
"That's on us then," Callie sighed, accepting their fate. "I'm sorry by the way. About the whole investigation thing. It's total bull."
"Well, they are wrapping it up in a couple months…" Arizona shrugged ever so slightly too fast, plastering a cheerful smile on her face, for probably the only person she definitely could try to but somewhere irrationally deep inside didn't want to fool about this, to see. Callie glanced at her sideways, indicating she thought Arizona's optimism was total bull too.
They walked in loaded silence for a bit, Arizona physically sensing the timer ticking on it like on a huge, disastrous, deadly bomb.
3… 2… 1…
"So about yesterday–"
"I'm sorry I kissed you! I know I shouldn't have. I was not thinking. So I'm… sorry."
BOOM.
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A little bit ahead in terms of chapters on AO3: /works/49609279/chapters/125210338
comments are more than welcome and greatly appreciated!