Chapter.
The empty room sat mocking them, Callie groaned in frustration. After flying for nearly 2 days to finding the room that Arizona was meant to be in to find it empty was heart breaking,
"She's not here" she said disappointedly, the room wasn't big enough for Arizona to hide in, it didn't even have its own bathroom,
"Maybe she is in the toilet" Teddy replied reasonably, "I mean she was here" she walked over to the photo frames. One was of a tall blonde in a Marine uniform, if Arizona was male, Callie was sure this is what she would have looked like,
"Tim, her brother" Callie trailed off not sure how much Teddy knew, instead of replying, Teddy turned the second photo, Callie and Arizona were both in the frame hugging.
Callie took the photo remembering how happy they had been together sending a silent prayer they could find their way back.
"Where is she?" Callie asked impatiently, she had flown halfway around the world to see Arizona and now she was here Arizona was nowhere to be seen.
"Let's ask the nurse" Teddy suggested leaving the room, Callie following,
"Hey, we are here to see Arizona Robbins, we are her friends, but she isn't in her room" Teddy asked,
"Poor thing, she is probably in the Paediatric wing" the nurse explained, "it's one floor up, Zola is in room 382,"
"Is Zola okay?" Callie questioned worriedly recognizing the name, that was the little girl Arizona had found in the orphanage who'd she'd been operating on when she got shot. At the same time if Arizona had got to the Paediatric wing she couldn't be too badly hurt.
"She needs expensive surgery to replace the shunt, the hospital won't do it for free, they are upset she came here in the first place and are arranging her to go back to Malawi today for palliative care." The nurse explained sadly.
Callie and Teddy exchanged looks, they knew that Derek could replace it easily,
"We'll take her" Callie said easily, going with her gut, "We are doctors from Seattle Grace, we take her to Seattle" She promised, not even worrying about the money, her trust fund had been restored, she had the money, and knew Derek would do it pro bono,
"Really" the nurse asked struggling to believe it.
"I'll make some calls" Teddy offered, "get the ball rolling,"
"Can Arizona come with us today?" Callie asked, without even seeing her she knew she wanted Arizona to come home.
"I believe so, especially with 2 doctors" the nurse said, "I'll asked her doctor to check in with you".
"We'll be in room 382" Callie replied already walking, Teddy close behind, talking on the phone to someone, Callie guessed it would be Derek or the chief, not that it mattered, she needed to see Arizona.
Finally, she got to the door, 382, the Paediatric ward looked exactly the same as the adult ward, with cream walls and grey floors. She opened the door,
"Arizona" she cried, seeing the blonde shoulder length hair, it was lighter, and longer than when she had left Seattle, but Callie knew it was her.
"Calliope?" Arizona's stunned voice replied, she turned the chair she was in, Callie for the first time noticed the wheelchair, Arizona was sat in, as she spun herself around Callie felt her mouth drop open as she noticed Arizona's injury, her weight loss, she'd always been slim but now she was practically skeletal, her eyes sunken,
"Calliope, what are you doing here?" Arizona asked surprised,
"We came to find you, Teddy and I we saw the documentary and needed to see you," Callie replied, her eyes not leaving Arizona leg, a metal cage sat, she could see a lot of the tissue had been removed, and a basic skin graft covered it. "Your leg?" Callie asked, itching to examine it,
"I got shot," Arizona explained, "the bullet lodged in my femur, and it got infected, they had to put this cage on to stabile the bone and remove the infected tissue," she shrugged, not looking down, it was a mess and she hated seeing it.
"I'm sorry" Callie apologised feeling guilty, she was meant to be here, if she had of been here she was sure she could have done something.
"It's not your fault" Arizona said simply, "I'm sure its karma" she joked, "I left you; I dumped you in an airport and didn't look back, you should hate me" Arizona accused, Callie nodded sadly.
"I could never hate you" she replied sincerely, when Arizona left her there was a lot of emotion, but hate wasn't one of them, it never had been. She'd never been able to hate Arizona,
"I left you, and Seattle and since my life has been one disaster after another, the irony is that I made them wait to fix Zola, and now she is going to die anyway and I'm still left with this mess" she laughed, a strange hollow laugh. "Thanks for coming but you're much better off without me, you and Mark, he always wanted you, I guess he won" Arizona told her, sounding empty, defeated, turning her wheelchair back to face the beautiful baby in the bed who was sleeping.
"No. Mark lied, we were never together not since we broke up, there has been nobody else, there is nobody else I want" Callie protested, "you don't deserve this, you left me, but you were right, I didn't want to come, you have saved so many lives here, you are amazing." Callie promised, "Teddy is on the phone now, we're here to take you home, both of you."
"Zola too?" Arizona asked, tears forming in her eyes.
"Zola too," Callie nodded kneeling down hugging her. As soon as Arizona was in her arms, she felt her heart fill. This felt like home.
"I'm sorry I left you" Arizona sobbed into Callie's shoulder, "I'm so sorry, I wanted to come home, but I thought I was too late, I'm sorry," she apologized, Callie gently hugged her rocking her trying to soothe her as much as she could.
"Can I look at your scans, I mean I can't promise anything but we have access to the most cutting edge surgeries" Callie suggested.
"Why are you being so nice, I left you, in an airport, without a home or a job, you should hate me" Arizona asked confused and self loathingly, Callie took her hand squeezing it tightly, making Arizona look at her wanting her to feel the full weight of her words.
"I saw you, I believe you, as you said to Konda, my heart was broken and only one person can heal it is here" Callie replied simply. "I was pissed, I was hurt, I felt broken, but I watched the documentary and I understood. You needed to go to Malawi to get them that funding, you needed to be a good man in a storm, no matter what the personal cost was. That's who you have been brought up to be and Malawi needed you. I should have been more excited for you. Reflecting I don't think I even congratulated your Carter Maddison win, I should have stepped up, we both should have talked more. I didn't want Africa, but I do want you".
"Even now?" Arizona asked her eyes going down to where her leg used to be, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"Especially now. You are so incredibly brave," Callie promised kissing Arizona, feeling more at peace than she had in a long time.
"Woah" Teddy said stepping into the room, "you two don't waste time,"
"We have a lot to make up for" Callie said, holding Arizona's hand tightly, she noticed Arizona squeeze her hand as Teddy noticed her leg, the mess that had been left behind, it was clear the bullet had wreaked havoc,
"Arizona, I'm so sorry" Teddy apologised,
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault, you didn't shoot me" Arizona replied her voice tense, Teddy shot Callie a nervous look, not sure how to handle a more sarcastic Arizona. "Like I said it's karma at least it's still attached." Arizona said bluntly, staring at Zola to avoid their sympathetic expressions.
"No, it's not karma, you saved so many lives" Callie praised, watching Arizona eyes fill with tears. "You were so brave."
"I didn't save enough" Arizona sobbed, the trauma of Malawi coming out, she felt safe with Callie and Teddy. With them she didn't have to be the strong unflappable head of Paediatrics, she could just be Arizona.
"You saved as many as you could, you were incredible, I am so proud of you baby" Callie soothed,
"I could have saved more" Arizona protested.
"We should have saved more, I should have been there" Callie said sadly, feeling just as guilty as Arizona. The documentary had shown her how much of an impact one more pair of trained hands could make.
"I'm glad you weren't there, I'd have been worried sick" Arizona replied honestly, as Zola began to stir,
"Thank God" Arizona whispered lifting her up trying to manually relieve the pressure build up with positioning, she winced as the baby caught her leg,
"Let me" Callie begged, "you know how much I love babies" she joked, remembering when that topic had broken them up. Arizona passed the baby over,
"I'm going to go try sort out the discharge, I think we can probably take you both home today" Teddy offered. Both Callie and Arizona looked shocked,
"Are you sure? That's a lot to sort out" Arizona said struggling not to get her hopes up but she wanted to go home, and get Zola to Derek Shepard, so he could save her life. After watching lots of children die from things in America would be an easy save, she was determined that Zola would not be one of them. She had even contemplated discharging herself flying to Malawi and operating on her, sure it would be sat down, and the infection risk was huge, but surely that was better than letting her die.
"I'm military, logistics is our thing" Teddy replied easily, stepping out of the room, determined to get them all on a flight that afternoon, Zola was running out of time. Currently she was wavering between irritable and slipping into unconscious, without the drain being unkinked, it wouldn't be look only a matter of days before she started having seizures and slipped into a coma, then brain damage and death would be certain.
"We should get you back to bed," Callie suggested, she knew Arizona's leg being down would cause it to swell and stop the healing,
"Not yet," Arizona pleaded, "I'll put another pillow under" she bargained, Callie sighed but helped Arizona to lift it up. Gently letting her fingers trailing over the injury. "You can look, I trust you" Arizona encouraged.
Callie didn't need asking twice, taking Arizona's leg examining the muscle, happy that the tone was good and the redness around the ex-fix was localised and about what was expected.
"I have my x-rays over there" Arizona pointed at a brown envelope next to a bag packed with her clothes. Callie practically ran over to examine the images, Zola still in her arms Arizona turned away, she didn't need to see them again.
"Wow, it really broke your femur" Callie commented, looking at the before, then the after with the ex-fix holding the bone in place, trying to get it to heal by itself, Callie frowned, it was a fix but the bone wasn't healing as well as she would have liked.
"What's that look?" Arizona asked curiously,
"Nothing" Callie replied without paying attention tilting her head slightly,
"No tell me". Arizona pressed.
"It's not healing as well as I would have liked, I'm not sure the ex-fix is the best course of action," Callie pondered,
"What would you do?" Arizona asked curiously, Callie was a genius when it came to bones, and she trusted her more than anyone else,
"Well, I'd need scans to be sure, but the ex-fix is a short term option and with a fracture this bad I don't think it will give the best result." Callie mused, "There are a few options, we could either use a nail, or a plate with screws, the more radical option is cadaver bone," she trailed off her mind travelling in hundreds of directions.
"As soon as we get to Seattle, I'm yours," Arizona offered waggling her eyebrows, Callie snorted,
"I'm not operating on you, I can't, but I will find the best ortho surgeon I know to come" she offered, the thought of cutting into Arizona making her feel sick.
"No, you are the best Ortho surgeon, but I guess I can have second best". Arizona compromised. "As soon as we get home."
"Okay, I have a flight leaving the airport in 3 hours" Teddy said running back into the room, "I have a temporary visa for Zola and the nurses are drawing up meds, ready for the flight,"
"Really?" Callie said surprised, checking her watch, they had only arrived 2 hours ago.
"A lot of people watched that documentary and want to help, plus Owen and I, we have a lot of people out here" Teddy said modestly. What neither of them needed to know was that Derek and Owen had been working on this since they had left Seattle. They'd contacted the hospital gotten the scans and x-rays and started arranging the journey back and the visa. Between Arizona's health insurance, the Carter Maddison grant and Callie's trust fund, they easily had enough for the flight. Someone had even started a go fund me page to help Arizona and Zola which had already raised $56,000, they'd use it to pay Callie back, the rest could be put towards Zola's medical care, and anything Arizona needed or to the ongoing costs of the clinic.
"They'll be bringing in stretchers for you both, then I've arranged an ambulance to take us to the airport" Teddy explained, "We'd like to sedate you" she said nervously to Arizona, she knew Arizona wouldn't be happy, but she also knew it would be excruciating flying with a fractured femur, with all of the movement, and air pressures.
Arizona frowned; she hated the idea of being out of control but knew it was for the best. Even getting into the chair had caused a lot of pain, turbulence and the jostling of the flight, as well as the swelling,
"I'll be there the whole time" Callie promised,
"We are going to sedate Zola too" Teddy added.
"Please" Callie begged. Arizona nodded, she owed Callie so much and was still struggling with the fact Callie had come over to South Africa for her, even though she had dumped her brutally, Callie had come for her.
"Okay" Arizona agreed, for Callie she would do anything. "Light sedation only" she ordered. Both Callie and Teddy nodded, they weren't planning on intubating,
"deal" Teddy said as the 2 stretchers came in.
"Zola first" Arizona ordered, Callie gently placed the baby on the stretcher, Teddy drawing up the medicine injecting it into the IV.
"Let me help" Callie offered gently lifting Arizona as Teddy got her leg.
"Relax, I love you" Callie said kissing Arizona's forehead as Teddy injected the sedative.
"I'm sorry Calliope" Arizona said as her eyes closed, "I love you and missed you lots".
"Let get our girls home".
Callie and Arizona are together,
Arizona and Zola are going home.
Let me know what you think,