Being hangover and having to work just did not match. Arizona noticed that, once again, this morning when she sat on her desk, enjoying the silence. Callie yet wasn't here which Arizona found okay. She still had no plan how she was supposed to look Callie in the eyes the next few days.
She got pulled out of her thoughts by the door opening and Lily coming in. "Well, good morning to you too! You look like you're about to pass out any second!" The redhead joked as she let herself in the office, getting comfortable on the sofa. The blonde just had to laugh. Lily described exactly how she felt.
She overdid it yesterday night and she knew it. No make up could save her today.
"Where is Callie?", Lily asked, not caring about Arizona's hungover state.
"She usually comes at around eight." The blonde answered with a deep breath.
"You know how John is and you know what he is planning. Saturday night, be there at eight. Invite Callie!" Lily warned her.
John, Lily's husband, insisted on throwing her a huge birthday party each year. She herself hated it. Allthough Lily loved celebrating birthdays. Just not her own. She would much rather just go have dinner with her family, maybe even bring the kids to their grandparents or Arizona. But John never let that happen. His reason always was the same. "Let me and our friends celebrate you, just for one day."
And each year, Lily found herself not being able to decline, actually finding it really sweet from her husband to celebrate her life.
What started lightly with just a cinema visit and later on a picnic in their favorite park ended up with a huge fancy party. Lots of alcohol and a huge mess afterwards.
They usually brought the kids to John's parents, deciding it was for the better if they weren't present when their parents got drunk.
"I'll be there!" The blonde mumbled, barely audible. Happy with the decision, Lily made her way out of the blondes office.
Taking a deep breath, Arizona lifted her head. A quarter to eight. Callie would arrive soon. Arizona put in her headphones, started music and slowly started researching.
Callie got there just shorty after. Like everyday, Arizona felt Callie looking at her for a few seconds, whisper a silent 'good morning Robbins' and then get settled down and start her work. It was an everyday routine.
When Arizona was sure Callie was deep in work she quietly looked up and mouthed a 'morning Torres' and got back to her researches.
Later on, at around 10 am, Arizona did her first rounds for that day and checked some post ops (that actually was intern work but she rather looked over them to be sure everything was alright). Around half past eleven, Arizona made her way to the attendings lounge, where they had a little kitchen.
She warmed up her spaghetti and ate in silence, while answering emails. Thinking about it, the blonde was happy that her lab partner didn't talked with her about the prior night.
Allthough maybe it wouldn't have been too bad. Lily and she had a little talk the other night.
"You know," Lily started while making them drinks. Arizona already knew that whenever Lily started like that that nothing good was about to come out of her mouth. "People should assume that when you work side by side everyday that you should get closer with your work partner. But Callie and I talked yesterday at lunch. She said that you're not the most talkative. Which is pretty weird because when we talk you barely get your mouth shut. And I thought that the two of you would make a pretty good friendship you know." Lily continued, not leaving any space for her blonde friend to comment.
"I don't know. I guess we just aren't like that. You may see a potential good friendship but I don't. And neither does she." Arizona shrugged before taking a sip of her drink.
"You barely talk to her, where do you want to know that she isn't interested in a friendship with you?" Lily asks.
"Like you said, we barely talk. And when we talk, it's usually about work. You don't have to be friends with your work partners." Arizona said, getting a little annoyed with this subject. All she wanted to do was hang out with Lily for a while. Not talk about Callie.
"Arizona, this is a hospital, you should know better than anyone else how important it is to be friends with your work partner. Working in a hospital like we do means not much time for a private life. The people who work in a hospital are colleagues, friends. Yes, you could even say they are family. The people that work there are like a little village. When you arrived here this village welcomed you. You had nobody. You worked here, we accepted you here and befriended you. It's not different with Callie right now. She's new and has no one. So don't you think that it's only fair if she gets welcomed exactly like you were?" Lily asked. Arizona needed time to think about it. Lily was right at some point. But she couldn't force them to be friends, right?
Since they had talked about Callie that night it's been four days. Lily was right at some point. Arizona could've welcomed better than she did.
After she quickly washed her dishes, Arizona made her way back. When she entered their office, Callie looked up smiling. "Guess what?" Callie said.
Arizona was lightly confused. But before she could actually take a guess Callie already talked again. "Dr. Taylor proposed that as long as the studies are going I'm working here!" Arizona froze. Was Lily serious about that?
All Arizona brought out was a cracked smile. "Awesome"
Lily's words shot through her head. "If you want to I can show you around." Arizona said, not sure if she would regret it later or not.
"Honestly?" Callie asked.
"Yeah I mean why not?" Arizona said.
Callie smiled softly at the offer. "Thank you Alaska." Callie said before walking out of the office.
Not being sure if that was a nickname or if Callie just tried to be funny, Arizona stood there, mouth slightly opened. "It's actually Arizona but okay." She whispered to herself. People always tried to be 'funny' and called her different state names.
Timmy, her older brother, and their best friend Nick would always call her Phoenix. They were the only ones that were allowed to call her that. A privilege not even their parents had.
Not sure if it was the right state name Callie called her partner, the latina made her way to Dr. Taylor's office. She told the redhead what Arizona had offered. Around thirty minutes and a birthday party invitation later, Callie made her way back to the blonde. Arizona needed to show her around and get on the way Callie's new scrubs.
It wasn't that much longer that the two women were done. Callie got her pager and navy scrubs and was told that for her first day she would have to follow Arizona to get familiar with the hospital.
To be honest, it did kinda suck. Callie felt like a lost, abandoned puppy, following random people in hope of help. Neither did she had any interesting cases that would keep her sane. She had a patient that came to get his cast removed. That case probably was the most interesting (and the only case) she had so far.
It was Thursday morning when both, Arizona's and Callie's pager started beeping at the same time. "ER?" Arizona asked Callie who only nodded in response.
Finally some action!
Arriving in the ER, Callie and Arizona were told to go to Trauma room 1. A little boy, not older then eight, was playing superhero and climbed on a tree to save an imaginary cat. Unfortunately he lost his balance and fell around 10 ft down. Paramedics had to resuscitate him once on their way to the hospital. Callie and Arizona were quick to get him to an OR.
"So, did Dr. Taylor invited you to her birthday party?" Arizona asked, trying to interrupt the uncomfortable silence.
"Yeah she did. It starts at eight, right?" Callie answered just briefly looking up at blue eyes.
The latina was working on the boy's left arm, while Arizona managed his squeezed liver. A short "yes" was heard from the blonde.
"So I'll see you there?" Callie asked, not being sure how to keep the conversation up.
"Yeah, probably." Arizona answered while focusing again on the liver.
Something wasn't right there tho. In the next moment, the boy's stomach was filled with blood. "Suction please!" The blonde ordered. Callie stopped working at the arm to help Arizona. While the latina took over the suction, Arizona tried to find the reason behind all the blood. The machines soon started beeping, signalling the surgeons that their patient was crashing. Arizona had to decide. Either she would use paddles now and let the blood keep filling up the stomach or she could look for the organ the blood was coming from.
It took her around a minute to find the cause of the blood. "If got it!" The leak was in the kidney.
The two doctors ended up taking out one kidney. The boy will survive his fall. He just had to stay at the hospital for a little while.
"Good job, Alabama!" There were only three states that started with an 'A'. Arizona wrinkles her nose. "You too." She answered.
Some nurses gave her questionable looks bit the blonde just shrugged them off, being aware of her 'new name'.
Later that day, both women were at the moment working in their office, when a knock was heard on the door. Just a few seconds later Lily Taylor let herself in. She quickly welcomed Callie, asked her how it's been so far. Working here and having the studies at the same time could be pretty hard. But Callie assured her that she was fine. After quickly talking to the latina Lily made her way to the opposite side of the room.
"Guess who was calling me and mistook me with a mail man." Lily said as she sat on one of the chairs that were meant for patients parents.
"I don't know? Do I seem like a mind reader to you?" Arizona shrugged with her shoulders.
"Emma."
"Emma?" Arizona was confused as to why someone would call Lily and ask for her. "Who is Emma?"
"I don't know but she wants you to know that you left your bra at her apartment. She asked when she should come over to bring it back." Lily gave everything she had in herself not to burst out into laughing. Arizona usually was a confident person. She had, when talking to Lily or Olivia, no filter. So seeing the blonde's face going brighter shades of red with every second was just hilarious.
Not for Arizona tho. She had only verge memory of who Emma was. And Lily playing mail man for Emma was just humiliating. She let her sight drift over Lily's shoulder to see an amused brunette.
In that moment she begged to whoever was watching her from above to kill her right on the spot.
"If you have her address I could pick it up on my way home or tell her to throw it in the trash." Arizona said, gathering all her courage. She cupped her own face with her cold hands, hoping to get the red ish color from her face.
"Too late. I looked at your surgical board and told her to just come by in around an hour." Lily proudly smiled to Arizona. The blondes face fell.
She sent Lily a look asked her why she would do that.
"Remember the last time that I let Isla have a sleepover with you?" Arizona nodded. How could she forget? They watched three Disney movies together, build a castle out of pillows and ate sweets until their stomachs hurt. Afterwards, around eleven pm, way too late for Isla to actually still be awake, they had put yogurt on their faces and fresh cucumber on their eyes.
"Isla keeps singing inappropriate songs for a five year old." Lily said. As she saw the puzzled look on Arizona's face she pulled out her phone and clicked in a video. And there she danced, the little five year old in her pjs.
I like big butts and I cannot lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung, want to pull up tough
Callie watched the conversation playing from the other side of the room. Emma. Must be the woman Arizona run out of the bar with the past evening.
She couldn't care less about the blondes sex life. Neither did she care about what she saw the night before. Robbins screws women? Doesn't matter to Callie. Why would it?
The good thing about what she saw last night (and what she overheard her boss say to Robbins) was that she had some gossip to talk about with Mark.
Ever since Callie is in New York, she and her best friend talk on a daily basis. Mark tells her all the gossip she is missing and Callie... Well Callie tells Mark about her mostly boring office days. Occasionally, Callie would tell Mark about her annoying lab partner. She tells her best friend how the blonde had wheels on her shoes and when Callie asked why she would wear such shoes she just answered "you're just jealous!" Jealous? Those shoes were making Arizona seem like an old kid. Mark had laughed about it too, but mostly being happy that the usually calm and professional latina couldn't seem to stop gossiping about Dr. Robbins. And Mark loved it. He would almost say that his best friend was passionate about talking bad about the peds surgeon. Just a few nights prior Callie had talked to him about Arizona for over thirty minutes. Without Mark even saying one thing. Solid thirty minutes the brown haired man listened to his best friend complaining about a person he didn't even knew. And Callie was grateful for that. She had yet to discover who she could openly talk with about Arizona and she should rather avoid with this subject.
"I thought she was sleeping! I just put on a random playlist while I did some dishes." The blonde said to Lily who was only nodding her head. Lily and John were totally chill about such things. They knew that to Isla this song just seemed like a silly song that someone would sing if their friend wasn't feeling good. But to Lily it still wasn't one of the brightest moments the blonde had.
The two women continued talking for a while until Lily had to leave again. It wasn't until then that Callie could finally focus on her work again.
The quiet didn't hold long when an intern knocked on their door and stuck his head inside. "Dr. Robbins? You have a visitor." He informed her before stepping back. Arizona jumped up and out of her chair as fast as she could. She did not wanted Emma to come inside and let her last night hook up meet with her lab partner. Not happening.
"Hey Arizona honey! How are you?" Emma declared before throwing herself into Arizona's arms, kissing her on the mouth.
What the living hell was happening?
After Emma's quick welcome she pushed Arizona's blue bra in pale hands. "Here you left that at home." She smiled. Arizona could've sworn that when she saw Emma the last time she had freckles. Apparently not. Emma had light brown hair, brown eyes but no freckles. She was a little taller than Arizona was. For a weird reason, Emma smelled as if she just came out of a shelter. She smelled like cats but not in a good way.
"Thanks!" Arizona shortly answered as she stuffed her bra in her lab coat. The blonde looked around, hoping no one saw the exchange between them.
"When is your shift done today? I thought we could go to dinner tonight." Emma said as if it would be the most obvious thing in the world.
"Uhm twenty-four hour shift." Arizona lied. She did not wanted to go on a date with Emma. Usually her hook ups knew that what went between them the night before was a one time thing. Usually Arizona would ask them where their bathroom was after sex. She waited in the bathroom for about thirty minutes before she made her way back quietly.
That's how she did it yesterday. Just with the little difference that she forgot her bra.
"Oh okay. How about dinner tomorrow? I could cook us something?" Emma continued trying.
"How about I call you and tell you how I feel? Twenty-four hour shifts are exhausting and I'm sure that I'll be beat when I'm home." The blonde continued trying to get Emma to understand that she wasn't interested. Arizona didn't plan on actually calling. She knew it wasn't really nice of her, but she had honestly more important stuff to do then relationships or commitment.
"Yeah ok, sounds good!" Emma smiled widely. She definitely did not realized the blondes lack of interest in her. She grabbed Arizona's scrub top as she pulled the blonde woman closer to herself. Emma kissed Arizona on the mouth, either not caring or not realizing that Arizona didn't appreciate it, nor did she kissed Emma back. "See you tomorrow?" She asked as she stopped kissing Arizona.
"We'll see." This is gonna spread like forest fire. Arizona could already hear the nurses gossiping about her and her 'new flame'.
Great.
Oh Lily is gonna love this!
Sorry it took me so long to update! I promise I'll try to update more often and regularly ! I'd say I'll try every Saturday to Sunday but I don't want to make promises I can't keep! lmk what you think of that chapter!
sending out much love and hugs to everyone who needs them rn3