Dr. Arizona Robbins was having a Bad Day. Scratch that. She was having a bad night. A night so bad that it had stretched on into a bad day. If she really thinks about it, she may have even been having a bad week. One of those weeks where every day bleeds into the next. She lost a patient, she saved a patient. It's hard to have feelings about either when she was so damn exhausted. Faintly, she knows that a new class of surgical interns had arrived at the hospital, but she hasn't even had a chance to open their files, let alone learn their names or god forbid meet them. Maybe if she had a tiny bit more sleep in her she would have even felt bad about it.
She's disproportionately excited, she recognizes, to find a dark and empty call room. Blindly almost, she locks the door behind her, kicks a shoe in each direction, lifts the blanket and throws herself onto the blessed bed.
"Umph" the bed exclaims, a gush of air leaving its lungs.
"Oh, my god!" Arizona nearly shouts, scrambling to get out of the clearly occupied bed. The bed seems to be quicker than her, however, and grabs her arm to fold over the very small figure of what seems to be a woman. "Ummm" Arizona stammers, not knowing how on earth she found herself in this situation. Is she sleep walking?
"Hold me." The woman husks, squeezing Arizona more tightly to her and forcing her to wrap herself around the small frame that's holding her hostage.
"Who… Who are you, exactly?" Arizona feels it is her civil right to at least ask.
"Amelia. Shepherd."
The breath rushes out of Arizona's lungs.
"My brother gave me a card to the attendings' call rooms on my first day so I could sleep alone. But I don't mind sharing." Amelia mumbles as she starts rubbing her tiny socked feet against Arizona's.
"This is… highly inappropriate." Arizona says, but she finds herself relaxing into the other woman's body more and more. Does Amelia use coconut vanilla shampoo? That's nice…
"Not if nobody knows. I just had my first forty eight hour shift, I can't possibly drive home. Let's sleep it off, please."
Well that's a request Arizona is finding increasingly hard to refuse.
"I don't really make a habit of getting into bed with women I don't know, Shepherd, let alone interns." Half truth at best, but Arizona's sticking to her guns.
"Okay, well, here's the rundown: Amelia Frances Shepherd, twenty five years old, born and raised in New York City with the most overbearing older brother known to mankind as well as three older sisters. Went to Harvard, then Hopkins for med school-"
"I went to Hopkins, too!" Arizona exclaims, joyed at their mutual connection for some odd reason.
"Well, then you know everything there is to know about me." Amelia sighs tiredly, turning over with her eyes still closed, pulling Arizona impossibly closer.
Robbins thinks she may be having a stroke. Best to sleep it off, right?
"You can never mention this to anyone, Shepherd." She whispers to an already sleeping Amelia, seconds before joining her.
When she wakes up several hours later to a page, Arizona finds herself regretting the fact she has to leave the warm little body that's been keeping her company and that has allowed her the best sleep she's had in at least a week if not more. It's dark, so she doesn't even get a final glance at Amelia. Maybe that's for the best, she tries to convince herself.
Dr. Amelia Shepherd rushes out of the elevator, knowing what a crappy impression she must be making to already be late for her first day on rounds with a new attending. Plus, Alex will probably give her shit for it, after he had hailed his mentor so much last night. It's unlike Amelia to sleep in, but her dear brother and sister-in-law were being very loud for a very long amount of time last night. By the time she found earplugs, night had turned into day, and she must have slept straight through her alarm clock. The lovebirds didn't bother to wake her up, probably thinking there's no chance on earth she'd risk being late on the second week of her internship. Boy did she prove them wrong.
"Dr. Shepherd, how kind of you to join us." Karev immediately says snarkily upon seeing her join the rest of the interns at the NICU, folding his arms.
"I'm so sorry!" She begs, looking towards the blonde woman standing next to Alex, who she's pretty sure is the head of Peds. Great, Amy. The blonde, Robbins, if she recalls correctly, merely nods and looks away.
"Wilson, continue, please." Robbins indicates to Amelia's fellow intern, and she nearly faints. Is… Is that? It cannot be, right? She's almost certain she cannot have done it again. Not again, damn it.
Amelia goes through rounds with Robbins and Karev in a haze, not speaking up despite knowing every single answer. Truth be told she's interested in Peds. Pediatric neurosurgery, that is. But she cannot possibly bring herself to speak. She wrecks her mind again and again, trying to figure out whether it's possible that…
"Snap out of it, Shepherd. Why are you just standing there?" Karev asks her after the rest of the interns have begun to disperse.
"I… I just need to… Excuse me." She mumbles, removing the pink NICU gown as she rushes to find Robbins near the nurses' desk. "Dr. Robbins?" She asks timidly once she reaches the blonde attending.
"You were late today, Shepherd, that won't be tolerated again." Arizona says, not even looking at her. Amelia does think the doctor seems discernibly more tense than she did before Amelia approached her.
"Of course. May I speak with you? In private?" Amelia whispers the last bit, and begs with her eyes when Arizona finally turns to glance her way.
With a sigh and a look around, the attending complies and walks gingerly to a nearby empty patient room. She leaves the door open, as well as a noticeable distance from Amelia. That's to be understood, she guesses.
"I just need you to please, please, believe what I'm about to tell you." Amelia begins, folding her hands in a prayer, as if that could possibly salvage her dignity. "I have these really vivid dreams that I get when I'm exhausted. They're somewhere between a dream and sleepwalking, and I was just sure that's what I was having that day. I would never in a million years impose myself on anyone else, let alone my superior." Amelia rambles, hoping to god that the doctor would believe and understand her.
"Shepherd-" Arizona starts, but gets cut off immediately.
"Please, I just need you to know it was never my intention to put you in such an uncomfortable position. I'm a great surgeon, and I have the utmost respect for you, especially after Alex talked my ear off about you last night. I'm asking that you give me a chance to prove myself." Amelia knows her hands are flying every which way, and she can bet her face is red with shame.
"Shepherd, stop!" Robbins raises her voice, but she also smiles as she approaches her. "I promise you, there are far worse things interns have done in this hospital. Today, even, probably." She cracks a smile, and Amelia finds herself getting slightly lost in what she now realizes are extremely blue eyes.
"Can we please put this behind us? I'm truly interested in pediatrics."
"Well, then act the part, Shepherd. No more being late when you're on my service, and speak up so we could hear you. I would hate to think a fellow Hopkins girl is not living up to the legacy."
Amelia swears that soft voice and sweet dimple have the ability to get her to do quite about anything.
"Absolutely, Dr. Robbins." Is she blushing still? She thinks she might be.
This is going to be a very interesting year.