Okay so apologies, I don't know what went wrong the first time I uploaded it but hopefully the format is better and readable now!
"LAPPADS NOW!" Callie screams at the nurse as if she wasn't going as fast as possible anyway. She doesn't even know how she – the freakin ortho god – ended up here, in general surgery. At least it could be worse she thinks; she is assisting Grey after all. And the only reason she paged Callie was because all the other surgeons are occupied, and the brunette does like to think of herself as a team sport; always willing to help. Somehow, and Callie really has no idea how, they managed to pull the stray appendectomy back on course, so she leaves Grey to it and heads back to her own lab.
As soon as Callie falls into that chair it's almost as if her body gives in to the day. Almost as if being a doctor makes you unable to feel the tiredness and long day you've had. The worst part? She still has 14 hours and 2 surgery's left for the night. But hey the good news is her wife is on the exact same shift which means they get to eat breakfast together and cuddle in bed – one of Callie's favourite activities. And god she would kill for a good sleep cuddled into her wife's arms right now. Her head's hurting and she's been working for 22 hours with no sleep. She needs to lay down and she honestly doesn't care where as long as it's in the next 5 minutes. So that's what she does. Dragging herself to the on-call room was almost a little too much but as soon as she throws herself down on that bed she's out like a light.
As Arizona came out of surgery, a very successful one at that, all she wanted was to go and see her wife. Even if it was for a few minutes. That's the thing, you get to a point, even if you have a good day, where all you need is a moment looking into that one person's eyes. One moment in Callie's arms is all she needed right now.
The blonde checked the surgical board on her way to her wife's lab. Callie was due in surgery in an hour. Definitely in her lab then. She always was in her lab before a surgery, just to bring herself together. And Arizona is fully prepared to see her wife mumbling to herself, probably walking up and down the length of the room, but nope, nothing. No sign of her wife at all. Unless there was an emergency, which Arizona herself would most likely know about, Callie wouldn't have went far. She'd be close enough that a nurse should know her whereabouts.
"Hey, anyone seen my wife?" She asks a group that she knows her wife generally talks to the most. If anyone on this floor knew it would be them.
"On call room, she looked a little off though so maybe tread lightly." Well okay then. Off she goes to pointed on call room to try and figure out what's wrong with her wife. Callie does have a temper after all.
"Calliope?" She pokes her head in carefully but with no reply she fully immerses herself in the dark room. The blonde lets her eyes adjust and that's when she can see her wife laying on the bed on the opposite side of the room. She's glad her wife is actually sleeping; she had a bad habit of depriving herself of sleep whenever on shift. Well, she had a habit of doing it until Arizona intervened and pushed her towards an on call room but that was her wife and the blonde couldn't help but smile at the thought.
"Callie? You have surgery soon honey," she says as she sits on the edge of the bed. Her wife is laying on her back, slightly turned to face the wall but even in the almost pitch black, Arizona can tell that Callie's breathing is off. It's not relaxed and quiet like it usually is when her wife sleeps. She carefully lifts her hand to Callie's forehead, feeling the expected burn that greeted her. "Shit," she murmurs to herself, trying to figure out the best way to go about this now. Okay, she could do this, right? She could figure this out.
Half an hour goes by and it's all full of organising her wife's surgery's and reassigning them to the appropriate people. The brunette wouldn't be able to operate with a fever regardless of how she felt anyway. She spoke to Hunt and they had decided as a pair that depending on how Callie was – they had yet to wake her – Arizona would be cutting her shift short to take her home and stay there with her. Realistically she knew the brunette well and Callie doesn't get sick all that often but when she did her immune system just shut down for what seems like weeks.
So, she returns to the bedside, Callie hasn't moved an inch of course. Has no idea of what's convened while she's been knocked out. Arizona almost doesn't want to wake her, wish she didn't have to honestly, because Callie looked almost peaceful and the blonde didn't want to be the one to pull her out of that and immerse her into this shitty feeling she knew would welcome her.
"Callie…I need you to wake up for me," Arizona moves her hand back and forth over her wife's arm after checking her fever. It was still ever present.
"Hmm, what?" She can tell Callie isn't well and fully knows it. Her voice is croaky, and her face screwed up in pain the minute she woke."How are you feeling? Can you tell me your symptoms?"
"Arizona, I don't feel good," she rolls as she says it, facing Arizona and pushing her face closer to her wife's body. The fact the brunette hadn't even acknowledged her questions had the blonde worried, but she just hopes she can draw Callie a little closer to reality.
"I know you don't, I'm gonna take you home in a little bit but I just want to take your temp and perhaps figure out what you got here okay?" She doesn't wait for a response to put the thermometer in her ear, just waits for the beep – at which Callie flinches. So, a headache is a definite. "103. Yeah, we're definitely going to take you home, can you tell me anything about how you're feeling love?"
"I-I don't know. I have a headache, dizzy, my uh throat's scratchy, and my stomach is feeling pretty crumby," she replies in a whisper. Anyone can tell just by looking at her this just isn't right. She's pale, can barely keep her eyes open and since when did she whisper? She didn't is the answer to that.
"Okay, you just relax for me, I'm just going to page Owen and we're gonna get you home to our bed."
"Please don't leave me," she tilts her head to look the blonde right in the eye as she says it. And Arizona doesn't miss the way she looks like she'll cry if she did up and leave. At least now she knows Callie's actually sick, her wife would never be this clingy at work, or even at home really, if she were feeling better.
"I'm not baby, I'm staying right here don't worry."
As soon as Owen poked his head in the door, they started working on getting Callie up and into a wheelchair. Just that was a mission and a half, getting her to the car and home was a whole other situation. Not that Callie was very conscious during any of it.
Arizona had somehow got her into the house and upstairs to their bed, stripping Callie of her scrubs and in a hopeful attempt to keep her wife cool and dressed her in one of her own over-sized college t-shirts. Now as she lay facing her wife, rubbing her back gently, she just hoped that the brunette could sleep the worst of it off. Her and Owen had agreed that it was probably a general flu before they left the hospital which kept Arizona slightly calmer considering the situation.
But as she waited for Callie's breathing to even out fully and fall into a deep sleep, she tried to think back to the last time the brunette was sick in anyway. Arizona may be wrong, but she's pretty sure it was just over a year ago, October of last year maybe and she's absolutely sure that that was the worst state she's ever seen her wife in. The blonde can remember how both of them had spent the majority of close to 36 hours on the bathroom floor while the brunette had basically thrown up a lung. And all Arizona could do was push more fluids on her wife and hold her between rounds when all she wanted was to take Callie's pain away, even take it on herself if she had to. But they got through that and they'd get through this just as easily, even if Callie did start throwing up again. God, she hoped she didn't though.
Once Arizona had made sure her wife was successfully asleep, she had given herself a couple of minutes to lay there and just bask in said wife. Because damn, she was married to a kickass woman. But once she had eventually pulled herself from the bed she had changed into some comfy clothes – she was still in her own scrubs – and made her way to the kitchen. She figured she should take the chance to eat something herself while she could. The blonde already knew that Callie would reject any and every food item possible, despite Arizona begging her to eat. So, she would look after herself now so she could care for her wife whenever needed.
Two hours of cleaning and general sorting through the house had somehow ensued but she hadn't heard Callie call for her, which she knew she would if she needed anything. The blonde had left the doors open for that reason after all. But she figured she would take Callie some pills and see how she was feeling now.
Brunette hair was still sprawled out over the pillow as she was in the exact same position Arizona had left her in, but eyes fluttered open as she heard her wife coming.
"Hey baby, how you doing?" She climbs in next to Callie as she asks, letting her wife cuddle into her and nuzzle her neck. That was always something that she liked to do whenever the brunette had had a bad day or just wasn't feeling okay. It was her sense of comfort and Arizona loved it of course.
"Not good," Callie whispers back, still sounding extremely drowsy.
"Do you feel the same or worse?"
"Generally, the same but my stomach has definitely gotten worse."
"As in you think you're going to puke worse?"
"No, not right now." Oh, thank god.
She managed to convince the brunette to take the pills while she could keep them down and then simply let her lay against her, slowly drifting off again.
It wasn't even 20 minutes later that the blonde was brought out of her daze by her wife bolting for their en-suite. As soon as she processed what was actually happening, she followed Callie, getting there just in time as the brunette started gagging.
Arizona had just managed to pull her back before the inevitable puking, tying it messily into a low bun so she could rub Callie's back. She wanted to comfort her wife in anyway she could even if it was the most simplistic thing. The blonde was just hoping it wouldn't last 36 hours this time.
It was almost a solid 10 minutes of nonstop retching and vomiting until suddenly Callie's body had nothing left to give. The brunette just dropped her head – almost fully in the toilet Arizona might add – and looked like she was trying to catch her breath, hands fully clenching the seat.
"Come on love, why don't we try get you back to bed?"
With no reply, the blonde had to angle her head slightly to fully see that Callie was still with her. And her wife definitely was – but finding the brunette silently sobbing wasn't what Arizona was expecting to see. And usually she'd know, would be able to tell without even looking at her but Callie was shaking so much already that she really hadn't noticed the extra body movement.
"Cal, it's okay honey, come here," she says as she lightly guides her wife away from the toilet and into her arms – if only temporarily.
At this Callie only lets herself go completely and is full on crying and wheezing by the time she's in Arizona's arms.
"I'm…sorry, I just…I just feel so shit."
"I know, it's okay. Do you think you're going to puke again?" The blonde decides that soothing Callie's back would have to be enough until she can get her off the floor and back to the comfort of their bed. God, she loved their bed.
"No not right now anyway…eug I don't think I've ever felt this bad." Okay well Arizona knew for a fact that wasn't true. 36 hours, remember? Not that she'd dare say that right now.
"I know baby, want to go back to bed? You'll be comfier there," Arizona says as a last plead to hopefully get her wife to bed and asleep.
"Yeah…can you help me?" Callie looks at her with emthose/em eyes. The eyes where she knows that Arizona can see she's trying and being vulnerable. Something that isn't easy for her.
"Of course, wouldn't have it any other way," she pushes her wife's loose hairs that are framing her face behind her ears and carefully helps her up.
"God, you're so right; this is so much better," Callie lets out a relieved sigh as she sinks back into their bed.
The blonde just takes a minute to truly look at her wife, laying there completely vulnerable and can't help but smile as she thinks about how far they've come. Arizona can remember when her and Callie had just made things official and the brunette had locked herself in her apartment for a total of 3 days with no contact. Of course, Arizona had come knocking and banging on that door like she wanted to start world war 3, not caring at all when Callie's neighbour had popped out and basically wanted a fight for the noise. That didn't stop her of obviously. And she wasn't mad at the brunette for lack of contact, more worried than anything else. There had to be a reason for the hibernation and the blonde was determined to figure it out.
Callie had eventually unlocked the door, appearing red faced, teary eyed and a blanket draped around her shoulders, to which Arizona had slid in the doorway and locked the door, keeping the cave free of anything but them together.
She didn't say anything as she went in, just looked right into Callie's eyes and that's when the brunette had completely crumbled again, sobbing on Arizona's shoulder. The blonde had wrapped her up in her arms, led her to the couch and laid down with Callie comfortably pressed on top of her. They had lay there for hours in silence, Arizona rubbing her girlfriends back, playing with her hair; anything she thought might help if only a little.
Eventually, her girlfriend had whispered so quietly that Arizona had to strain to hear it that her mom had died. It was unexpected and the worst thing? Callie hadn't found out until 2 days after the fact, and through an email none the less. She hadn't spoke to her family in over a year at that point, but it still killed her like nothing else. And she hadn't wanted to get Arizona involved in that, hadn't wanted her to see her in such a state. Callie knew it was unfair and maybe selfish, but she truly couldn't face getting Arizona involved. That was until her girlfriend had nudged her way in, quite literally at that. God, so much had changed, and the blonde was amazed at where they were now.
"Are you getting in...or?" Callie had popped her head out and asked after a minute of silence.
"Yeah, baby I'm just gonna put the trash can next to the bed in case you need to puke again okay?" Callie only hummed in response, seemingly half asleep.
By the time Arizona had climbed in, pulling her wife back into her, so Callie's back was pressed into her chest, she was pretty sure the brunette was fast asleep.