Grey's Anatomy - Choices (22/23)
Title: Choices
Chapter 22/23
Authors: Faith & Kye
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: NC-17
Story Summary: Post-6x17 "Push" -- Arizona prefers chickens to children, and Callie isn't okay with that. Heartbroken and lonely, the two women try unsuccessfully to move on with their lives, only to find they really are made for eachother.
Chapter Summary: Hangovers and embarrassment of epic proportions the next morning.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Previous Chapters
---
To say that Arizona was feeling ‘less perky’ the next morning would have been a gross understatement.
Hung over, exhausted, sore and horribly embarrassed were better approximations of how she was holding up.
The sex part was great, without question. She and Callie had thoroughly enjoyed themselves for most of the night before passing out in the wee hours of the morning.
It was the ‘being awake’ part that sucked.
“I’m too old for this,” Arizona mumbled almost incoherently to her girlfriend as she shuffled onto the elevator with droopy eyes and a slouched posture. “Drinking an entire bottle of wine and sleeping for only three hours is something I maybe could’ve pulled off ten, fifteen years ago. And, as I say that sentence out loud, I just aged another decade.” She pouted tiredly and leaned into Callie as the doors started to close. “How is it you’re all awake and cheerful?”
“It's a total and complete facade,” Callie instantly replied as she sipped on her luke-warm coffee. She yawned, reaching up to rub at her eyes with the back of her free hand. “I could easily sleep for the next twenty-four hours and not so much as twitch.”
Arizona snickered in amusement. “You do that anyway.” Her body swayed when she received a hard elbow to the side. “Well, maybe not the twenty-four hour part, but you are pretty much a corpse when you're unconscious.” Snoring aside.
The door to the elevator suddenly dinged open. Both pair of eyes looked up to see that it was not their desired floor.
And then they both dropped down to the open door.
Mark-fucking-Sloan stood there, beaming at them with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face that Callie had ever seen.
Of course.
Arizona immediately averted her eyes, the ‘horribly embarrassed’ part of her crappy morning coming crashing down around her with a renewed vengence.
She really, really wished she could black out the memory of her and Callie, and…Mark. Watching. As Callie kissed and started taking her clothes off.
Oh God.
She was never drinking again.
Mark paused before stepping onto the elevator, standing in front of and between the two women as he turned to face forward. “Ladies.”
Arizona grimaced, looking like she was in physical pain, and stared hard at the right side of the elevator wall, trying to ignore the deep blush forming in her cheeks.
Callie slowly began to smile. Because even though she felt a little embarrassed about last night herself...
She'd seen them both naked before. A lot. In many different ways and various positions.
So she figured she kinda came out on top in all of this. Sort of.
Mark did still see her tongue halfway down her girlfriend's throat while she groped her, so...
The elevator dinged again, and the doors opened to reveal Miranda Bailey standing on the other side.
The petite woman's browline immediately shot up at the sight before her.
Robbins, obviously doing her best not to make eye contract with anyone while looking like she was due to throw up at any moment.
Sloan, standing between them trying not to look smug, but failing miserably.
Torres, smirking while she stared straight ahead as though listening to a private joke inside her own head.
All three sets of eyes glanced over to Bailey as she stepped on the elevator, eyeballing them suspiciously before turning around to face forward. “Morning, people.”
Callie couldn't keep the smirk from growing on her face as she glanced over at her girlfriend and then over to her best friend. And then to Miranda.
Bailey stiffened a little and turned to look back over her shoulder. It was almost as if she could feel eyes boring into her back. Her own narrowed at the three surgeons. “I don't know what's going on here with all this...” She paused and lifted a hand to wave vaguely in their direction. “...creepy, silent stuff. But,” she quickly added, raising her hand a bit higher. “I don't wanna know.”
Callie continued to smirk.
Arizona closed her eyes and groaned almost silently.
Mark raised a brow over at Bailey. “Morning, Miranda,” he said a little too cheerfully.
“I don’t. Want. To know,” Bailey snapped, fixing the plastic surgeon, who had a good foot of height on her, with a stern glare. “Did you not hear a damn word I just said?”
Mark looked a little taken back. “I said good morning.”
Callie couldn’t help it, she snickered. Arizona shot her a dirty, slightly panicked look, which only made her laugh even more.
Bailey narrowed her eyes in Callie's direction. “I know how that...sick, sick mind of yours works, Torres. Which just confirms my belief that I don't wanna know.”
Arizona reached out to elbow her girlfriend hard in the side.
But Callie's smirk still didn't waver.
The elevator dinged a final time to announce their arrival on the desired floor. Bailey shot each one of them a last glance before whipping her head around to make a beeline through the open doors. “Sick, sick mind,” she mumbled to herself as she walked rapidly away down the hall.
With the silence that followed, the doors started to close until Mark stuck his arm out, holding them open. “Ladies,” he repeated, gesturing forward.
Callie grinned at him as she walked by, still chuckling, but Arizona hesitated.
“You go ahead. I’m gonna go straight up to peds.”
Callie raised a slow brow. “You’ve still got all your stuff.”
“Yeah,” Arizona replied airily, staring hard up at the ceiling and avoiding Mark’s gaze for all she was worth. “I’ll go down later.”
“I bet you will.” Mark’s grin was priceless.
Callie's smirk faltered for the first time as she reached out to smack him hard in the stomach. “Don't make it worse. You're making it worse.”
Mark chuckled as he mock grimaced and reached down to rub at the sore spot on his abdomen. “It was hot okay?” he finally blurted, unable to hold it in any longer. “I might've been drunk, but I wasn't dead.” He turned to glance back over his shoulder at the wide-eyed and red-faced pediatric surgeon. “And now I don't think I'm gonna be able to do any surgeries today.”
Callie's brow furrowed. “Why not?”
Sloan turned back to his best friend, his smirk nearly splitting his face in two. “My right hand is really sore.”
“Ugh, Mark,” Callie groaned. “That’s just wrong.”
Arizona shut her eyes. “I hate you.” Unable to stay trapped in the elevator any longer, she sucked it up and stepped past Mark, who reached down and smacked her lightly on the ass.
She immediately whirled, fully planning on planting her fist in his face for the second time in her life, but Callie jumped in between them and hurriedly pushed her down the hallway.
***
“Mark Sloan is the Devil.”
Callie smirked as she looked up from where she was tying her shoe. “What?”
Arizona bunched up her shirt and then threw it hard into her open locker. “The Devil. Mark Sloan.” She looked at her girlfriend. “One in the same.” She walked over to take a seat next to Callie as she began pulling on her Heely's.
Callie chuckled quietly again. “He's not the devil. He's just very...” She dropped her leg from the bench and raised a hand, searching her brain for the right word. “Distasteful,” she finished with a slight tilt of her head.
“Distasteful?” Arizona repeated skeptically. “That's the PG version of what he is.” She dropped her right leg to the floor and lifted her left to begin with the other Heely. “Besides the Devil.”
Callie hesitated for a moment before suddenly blurting, “I touched it, too.”
Arizona lifted an eyebrow as she glanced up at Callie. “Touched what?” Finished with her shoes, she pulled her hair up into a messy updo and began braiding the little section she could never get to stay back by itself.
When Callie didn’t answer, Arizona swiveled on the bench, one leg on either side as she faced her girlfriend. “Touched what, Calliope?”
Callie swallowed.
Hard.
“Y'know.” She was hesitant to say more as she waved a hand between them, before eventually dropping it heavily into her lap. “It.”
Arizona's brow furrowed and she tilted her head just slightly. “You're gonna have to help me out here, Callie. It's very early and I haven't had my coffee yet.”
Callie swallowed nervously again. “Mark's...'It'.”
Arizona stared at her for a minute. “Mark’s…?” She waited, and when she received a nod in confirmation, her confused expression carefully melted into a neutral one. “Oh.”
Then she wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Ew. I don’t need details of your old sex life with Mark.” Shuddering at the mental image she did not want stuck in her brain, Arizona shook her head and slid a few more bobby pins into her hair until it was fully out of her face.
Callie swallowed again. “Not old.”
Arizona's hands stopped mid-motion as she turned to level her stare on the set of familiar brown eyes. “What?”
Callie felt her entire body shaking as she scooted a little closer to her girlfriend. She placed her hands on the cool wooden bench as she held Arizona’s stare. “I...I didn't mean for it to...i-it was when you and I...” She trailed off as she pulled in a shaky, much needed breath. “I didn't have sex with him,” she clarified. “I just sorta...touched it.” She shrunk away. “And maybe stroked it.” Another short pause. “A little.”
Arizona stared at her girlfriend for a long moment, not sure what she was supposed to say to that.
Or allowed to say to that.
Swallowing hard, she looked away, scrunching her forehead. “Oh. Uh…” She closed her eyes momentarily. “O-okay.”
Callie raised an eyebrow, watching Arizona carefully, not believing a word of it. “'Okay'? Really, that’s it? Just…'okay'?”
Arizona stood up and busied herself with putting her street clothes away in her locker, carefully avoiding looking at Callie. “I guess,” she answered distractedly.
Callie watched her lover's reaction very carefully. “You're not exactly convincing me of the 'okay' right now.”
Arizona just continued to dig through her locker.
Callie instantly jumped to her feet to walk over and stand just behind her partner. “Arizona,” she called softly. “Look at me.”
The blonde froze, but still didn't turn around.
“I'm sorry,” Callie whispered after a moment.
Arizona stared into the depths of her locker, though her mind was obviously seeing something other than what was in front of her.
“I know,” she replied quietly after a minute. “It…is what it is.” Sighing, she closed the locker, tapping her fingertips lightly against the front. “It’s just…it’s always him.”
“Hey,” Callie said gently, wanting to reach out and touch her but holding off for now. “I know you two have your differences sometimes,” she began, “But-”
“That’s not it,” Arizona sighed, finally turning around and leaning back against her locker. “It’s got nothing to do with me and him. It’s you and him.” She finally met Callie’s gaze, and took in a steadying breath before explaining.
“I’m not the jealous type. I’m not. Never have been. I think it’s petty, and stupid, and I choose to trust the people that I love rather than fixate on whether or not I should. But it’s really damn hard sometimes, because you two have…shared things, things that I don’t like to think about you sharing, and even though that’s mostly in the past, it’s always going to be the ‘Mark and Callie Show’.”
Arizona finally had to look away. “I hate knowing that he’s the first person you jump to, sexually, when you’re upset. Whether or not I have the right to be…it just hurts.”
Callie was left speechless, frozen in place, staring back at her girlfriend. She couldn't see her soulful blue eyes, but she knew that if she could, there would be...pain. Anguish. Betrayal.
Jealousy.
Everything she'd felt herself since the moment she saw Arizona in that cafe.
“I'm sorry, Arizona,” Callie finally replied, repeating her earlier words. “I never meant to hurt you like this.” She paused a moment as her stance took on a more rigid posture. “But to be fair, you were too busy fucking Carmen at the time, so I couldn't really turn to you, could I?”
Arizona’s eyes slipped shut. “What do you think I meant by ‘whether or not I have the right to be’?” she shot back, a little angrier than intended. She opened her eyes and met Callie’s hard stare with one of her own. “You said you forgave me for that, Calliope.”
“Oh, I never said I forgave you,” Callie interjected defensively. “I said that I wanted to move past it.”
“So you get to throw it in my face whenever the argument suits you?” Arizona gestured angrily with her right hand. “I only slept with her because I thought you were fucking Mark, and that you two were about to go and have this big happy family while I had to sit here and watch it happen.” Angry tears stung her eyes. “It was a mistake, one that I’ve already apologized for.”
“So we both fucked up,” Callie shot back as her own eyes began to burn. “I didn't have sex with Mark this time, but I can't change the fact that I used to. A long time ago. What happened with him before was just a...a relapse. A moment of seeking comfort, but nothing more.” She stepped up, her hand shaking as she reached out for the blonde.
She just needed contact. Any kind of contact.
Callie's warm hand gently curved around her girlfriend's forearm. “I don't wanna have sex with Mark. Not ever, ever again.” She smiled just slightly. “I only ever wanna have sex with you. Okay?"
It was the touch of Callie’s hand that diffused Arizona. She felt the anger and hurt slowly start to drain away, and was finally able to nod. “Me too.”
She managed a shaky smile. “See? This is why I hate being the jealous type. It never leads to any fun.” Arizona moved her arm so she could grasp Callie’s hand softly within her own. “Thank you for telling me. Er, not ‘thank you’, because I’m pretty sure I could have lived without ever having that mental image burned into my brain, but…thanks for being honest about it.”
Callie nodded with a soft smile. “That's what I want for us,” she replied in a gentle whisper. “I want us to be honest. Completely honest.” She gave the hand in her own a squeeze as her smile faltered just a bit. “And in the spirit of complete honesty...”
Arizona's smile faded, too.
“Mark,” Callie started again, pausing with a slightly nervous laugh. “You see...I...I wasn't the only one that...” She hesitated. “Touched.”
Arizona's brow lifted.
Callie laughed nervously once again. “Mark kinda...touched 'it' too.”
Arizona's face immediately twisted in disgust. “Ew! You mean he...you watched him...?”
Callie's eyes widened. “No!” she quickly cut in. “No. Not...not that.” She swallowed back once more. “He touched...my...it.”
Both of Arizona’s hands instantly flew up into the air, waving frantically and cutting Callie off. “Okay! Okay! I get it! You two had a thing. Not an all-the-way type thing, but there was stuff involved, and I never, ever need to know any of it, okay? Sound good? Great.”
Shuddering violently, Arizona stepped around Callie to scoop up her lab coat from the bench and throw it over her arm. “Ugh. We’re never having sex again,” she stated in a completely serious voice, feigning a mortified expression.
Callie's eyes widened just a little more as she turned to fully face her girlfriend. “That's a joke, right? You're joking here? Because I don't think it's fair to say we can never have sex again just because Mark and I felt eachother's...'it's'.”
Arizona cast a sideways glance at Callie as she dug through the pocket of her coat. “Not until you use the decontamination shower in the Infectious Diseases ward.” She barely hid her smile.
“Oh come on!” Callie instantly shot back. “He barely touched it! For like a whole...minute!”
Arizona looked up with a sharply raised brow. “I'm not touching your 'it' again until I'm thoroughly convinced 'it' is Sloan-fectious free.”
Callie's eyes were still wide as she stared back at her lover. “You gotta be kidding. I showered this morning! And many times since then!”
Arizona shrugged, shaking her head with an ‘oh well’ expression.
“Arizona! We’ve had sex like a hundred times since then!” Callie snapped.
Arizona kept her gaze on Callie as she pulled on her lab coat, and it wasn’t until she was adjusting the collar that a grin finally began to crack through her serious exterior.
She wasn’t able to contain the small bark of laughter at the look on Callie’s face, either.
A bit of the brunette's anger and disbelief ebbed away. She tilted her head. “Wait. Are you fucking with me?”
Arizona looked up to meet Callie’s gaze, her smile widening a little at the look in dark brown eyes. “No,” she finally answered as all traces of amusement just as quickly disappeared.
Callie's certainty vanished in an instant.
“We had all that sex before I knew Mark touched...” Arizona dropped her eyes down below Callie's waist. “'It',” she finished. “It's kinda...ruined now.”
Callie's eyes widened again. “Ruined?” she repeated sharply.
Arizona made a little ‘ick’ face, sticking her tongue between her teeth. “Yeah, a little. I’m a gold star lesbian, Calliope. I can only handle so much of you with the man-sex before I get creeped out.”
God, Callie Torres really was too easy to fuck with. Arizona loved her for it.
She stuck a few pens in her breast pocket, adjusting them until they were properly lined up with the labels facing forward. “Maybe in a week or two, when the germs have dissipated.”
Callie gaped at Arizona. “I’m going to kill you.”
Arizona snuck a glance up at Callie again, that cute little grin returning.
She jumped back with a loud squeal when Callie suddenly lunged forward and pinned her up against the row of lockers.
Arizona could barely breathe she was laughing so hard. “Baby, you are so cute,” she wheezed through her fit.
Callie held the blonde in place, her hips flush against Arizona's as she placed both hands against the lockers on either side of her girlfriend's head. “I bet you think you're real cute too, huh?”
The look in her dark eyes was...intense. Appropriate or not, Callie's annoyance at Arizona left her feeling more than a little turned on.
Arizona stopped laughing, but didn’t lose the grin. “Not as cute as you,” she beamed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
She ran her hands down her girlfriend’s sides and linked them behind the small of her back. “I love you, even if you have boy cooties, Calliope.”
Callie arched a brow. “Cooties?”
Arizona shrugged. “I work with six year olds.”
Callie snorted. “Doesn't mean you have to act like one.” She finally smiled a little as she shook her head, gazing intently at Arizona.
Who was she kidding?
She could never stay mad at those eyes. Not for very long.
Callie shook her head as she leaned back in to reclaim her girlfriend's lips. She had plenty of time to think of ways to get her back later.
---
Chapter 22/23
Authors: Faith & Kye
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: NC-17
Story Summary: Post-6x17 "Push" -- Arizona prefers chickens to children, and Callie isn't okay with that. Heartbroken and lonely, the two women try unsuccessfully to move on with their lives, only to find they really are made for eachother.
Chapter Summary: Hangovers and embarrassment of epic proportions the next morning.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Previous Chapters
---
To say that Arizona was feeling ‘less perky’ the next morning would have been a gross understatement.
Hung over, exhausted, sore and horribly embarrassed were better approximations of how she was holding up.
The sex part was great, without question. She and Callie had thoroughly enjoyed themselves for most of the night before passing out in the wee hours of the morning.
It was the ‘being awake’ part that sucked.
“I’m too old for this,” Arizona mumbled almost incoherently to her girlfriend as she shuffled onto the elevator with droopy eyes and a slouched posture. “Drinking an entire bottle of wine and sleeping for only three hours is something I maybe could’ve pulled off ten, fifteen years ago. And, as I say that sentence out loud, I just aged another decade.” She pouted tiredly and leaned into Callie as the doors started to close. “How is it you’re all awake and cheerful?”
“It's a total and complete facade,” Callie instantly replied as she sipped on her luke-warm coffee. She yawned, reaching up to rub at her eyes with the back of her free hand. “I could easily sleep for the next twenty-four hours and not so much as twitch.”
Arizona snickered in amusement. “You do that anyway.” Her body swayed when she received a hard elbow to the side. “Well, maybe not the twenty-four hour part, but you are pretty much a corpse when you're unconscious.” Snoring aside.
The door to the elevator suddenly dinged open. Both pair of eyes looked up to see that it was not their desired floor.
And then they both dropped down to the open door.
Mark-fucking-Sloan stood there, beaming at them with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face that Callie had ever seen.
Of course.
Arizona immediately averted her eyes, the ‘horribly embarrassed’ part of her crappy morning coming crashing down around her with a renewed vengence.
She really, really wished she could black out the memory of her and Callie, and…Mark. Watching. As Callie kissed and started taking her clothes off.
Oh God.
She was never drinking again.
Mark paused before stepping onto the elevator, standing in front of and between the two women as he turned to face forward. “Ladies.”
Arizona grimaced, looking like she was in physical pain, and stared hard at the right side of the elevator wall, trying to ignore the deep blush forming in her cheeks.
Callie slowly began to smile. Because even though she felt a little embarrassed about last night herself...
She'd seen them both naked before. A lot. In many different ways and various positions.
So she figured she kinda came out on top in all of this. Sort of.
Mark did still see her tongue halfway down her girlfriend's throat while she groped her, so...
The elevator dinged again, and the doors opened to reveal Miranda Bailey standing on the other side.
The petite woman's browline immediately shot up at the sight before her.
Robbins, obviously doing her best not to make eye contract with anyone while looking like she was due to throw up at any moment.
Sloan, standing between them trying not to look smug, but failing miserably.
Torres, smirking while she stared straight ahead as though listening to a private joke inside her own head.
All three sets of eyes glanced over to Bailey as she stepped on the elevator, eyeballing them suspiciously before turning around to face forward. “Morning, people.”
Callie couldn't keep the smirk from growing on her face as she glanced over at her girlfriend and then over to her best friend. And then to Miranda.
Bailey stiffened a little and turned to look back over her shoulder. It was almost as if she could feel eyes boring into her back. Her own narrowed at the three surgeons. “I don't know what's going on here with all this...” She paused and lifted a hand to wave vaguely in their direction. “...creepy, silent stuff. But,” she quickly added, raising her hand a bit higher. “I don't wanna know.”
Callie continued to smirk.
Arizona closed her eyes and groaned almost silently.
Mark raised a brow over at Bailey. “Morning, Miranda,” he said a little too cheerfully.
“I don’t. Want. To know,” Bailey snapped, fixing the plastic surgeon, who had a good foot of height on her, with a stern glare. “Did you not hear a damn word I just said?”
Mark looked a little taken back. “I said good morning.”
Callie couldn’t help it, she snickered. Arizona shot her a dirty, slightly panicked look, which only made her laugh even more.
Bailey narrowed her eyes in Callie's direction. “I know how that...sick, sick mind of yours works, Torres. Which just confirms my belief that I don't wanna know.”
Arizona reached out to elbow her girlfriend hard in the side.
But Callie's smirk still didn't waver.
The elevator dinged a final time to announce their arrival on the desired floor. Bailey shot each one of them a last glance before whipping her head around to make a beeline through the open doors. “Sick, sick mind,” she mumbled to herself as she walked rapidly away down the hall.
With the silence that followed, the doors started to close until Mark stuck his arm out, holding them open. “Ladies,” he repeated, gesturing forward.
Callie grinned at him as she walked by, still chuckling, but Arizona hesitated.
“You go ahead. I’m gonna go straight up to peds.”
Callie raised a slow brow. “You’ve still got all your stuff.”
“Yeah,” Arizona replied airily, staring hard up at the ceiling and avoiding Mark’s gaze for all she was worth. “I’ll go down later.”
“I bet you will.” Mark’s grin was priceless.
Callie's smirk faltered for the first time as she reached out to smack him hard in the stomach. “Don't make it worse. You're making it worse.”
Mark chuckled as he mock grimaced and reached down to rub at the sore spot on his abdomen. “It was hot okay?” he finally blurted, unable to hold it in any longer. “I might've been drunk, but I wasn't dead.” He turned to glance back over his shoulder at the wide-eyed and red-faced pediatric surgeon. “And now I don't think I'm gonna be able to do any surgeries today.”
Callie's brow furrowed. “Why not?”
Sloan turned back to his best friend, his smirk nearly splitting his face in two. “My right hand is really sore.”
“Ugh, Mark,” Callie groaned. “That’s just wrong.”
Arizona shut her eyes. “I hate you.” Unable to stay trapped in the elevator any longer, she sucked it up and stepped past Mark, who reached down and smacked her lightly on the ass.
She immediately whirled, fully planning on planting her fist in his face for the second time in her life, but Callie jumped in between them and hurriedly pushed her down the hallway.
***
“Mark Sloan is the Devil.”
Callie smirked as she looked up from where she was tying her shoe. “What?”
Arizona bunched up her shirt and then threw it hard into her open locker. “The Devil. Mark Sloan.” She looked at her girlfriend. “One in the same.” She walked over to take a seat next to Callie as she began pulling on her Heely's.
Callie chuckled quietly again. “He's not the devil. He's just very...” She dropped her leg from the bench and raised a hand, searching her brain for the right word. “Distasteful,” she finished with a slight tilt of her head.
“Distasteful?” Arizona repeated skeptically. “That's the PG version of what he is.” She dropped her right leg to the floor and lifted her left to begin with the other Heely. “Besides the Devil.”
Callie hesitated for a moment before suddenly blurting, “I touched it, too.”
Arizona lifted an eyebrow as she glanced up at Callie. “Touched what?” Finished with her shoes, she pulled her hair up into a messy updo and began braiding the little section she could never get to stay back by itself.
When Callie didn’t answer, Arizona swiveled on the bench, one leg on either side as she faced her girlfriend. “Touched what, Calliope?”
Callie swallowed.
Hard.
“Y'know.” She was hesitant to say more as she waved a hand between them, before eventually dropping it heavily into her lap. “It.”
Arizona's brow furrowed and she tilted her head just slightly. “You're gonna have to help me out here, Callie. It's very early and I haven't had my coffee yet.”
Callie swallowed nervously again. “Mark's...'It'.”
Arizona stared at her for a minute. “Mark’s…?” She waited, and when she received a nod in confirmation, her confused expression carefully melted into a neutral one. “Oh.”
Then she wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Ew. I don’t need details of your old sex life with Mark.” Shuddering at the mental image she did not want stuck in her brain, Arizona shook her head and slid a few more bobby pins into her hair until it was fully out of her face.
Callie swallowed again. “Not old.”
Arizona's hands stopped mid-motion as she turned to level her stare on the set of familiar brown eyes. “What?”
Callie felt her entire body shaking as she scooted a little closer to her girlfriend. She placed her hands on the cool wooden bench as she held Arizona’s stare. “I...I didn't mean for it to...i-it was when you and I...” She trailed off as she pulled in a shaky, much needed breath. “I didn't have sex with him,” she clarified. “I just sorta...touched it.” She shrunk away. “And maybe stroked it.” Another short pause. “A little.”
Arizona stared at her girlfriend for a long moment, not sure what she was supposed to say to that.
Or allowed to say to that.
Swallowing hard, she looked away, scrunching her forehead. “Oh. Uh…” She closed her eyes momentarily. “O-okay.”
Callie raised an eyebrow, watching Arizona carefully, not believing a word of it. “'Okay'? Really, that’s it? Just…'okay'?”
Arizona stood up and busied herself with putting her street clothes away in her locker, carefully avoiding looking at Callie. “I guess,” she answered distractedly.
Callie watched her lover's reaction very carefully. “You're not exactly convincing me of the 'okay' right now.”
Arizona just continued to dig through her locker.
Callie instantly jumped to her feet to walk over and stand just behind her partner. “Arizona,” she called softly. “Look at me.”
The blonde froze, but still didn't turn around.
“I'm sorry,” Callie whispered after a moment.
Arizona stared into the depths of her locker, though her mind was obviously seeing something other than what was in front of her.
“I know,” she replied quietly after a minute. “It…is what it is.” Sighing, she closed the locker, tapping her fingertips lightly against the front. “It’s just…it’s always him.”
“Hey,” Callie said gently, wanting to reach out and touch her but holding off for now. “I know you two have your differences sometimes,” she began, “But-”
“That’s not it,” Arizona sighed, finally turning around and leaning back against her locker. “It’s got nothing to do with me and him. It’s you and him.” She finally met Callie’s gaze, and took in a steadying breath before explaining.
“I’m not the jealous type. I’m not. Never have been. I think it’s petty, and stupid, and I choose to trust the people that I love rather than fixate on whether or not I should. But it’s really damn hard sometimes, because you two have…shared things, things that I don’t like to think about you sharing, and even though that’s mostly in the past, it’s always going to be the ‘Mark and Callie Show’.”
Arizona finally had to look away. “I hate knowing that he’s the first person you jump to, sexually, when you’re upset. Whether or not I have the right to be…it just hurts.”
Callie was left speechless, frozen in place, staring back at her girlfriend. She couldn't see her soulful blue eyes, but she knew that if she could, there would be...pain. Anguish. Betrayal.
Jealousy.
Everything she'd felt herself since the moment she saw Arizona in that cafe.
“I'm sorry, Arizona,” Callie finally replied, repeating her earlier words. “I never meant to hurt you like this.” She paused a moment as her stance took on a more rigid posture. “But to be fair, you were too busy fucking Carmen at the time, so I couldn't really turn to you, could I?”
Arizona’s eyes slipped shut. “What do you think I meant by ‘whether or not I have the right to be’?” she shot back, a little angrier than intended. She opened her eyes and met Callie’s hard stare with one of her own. “You said you forgave me for that, Calliope.”
“Oh, I never said I forgave you,” Callie interjected defensively. “I said that I wanted to move past it.”
“So you get to throw it in my face whenever the argument suits you?” Arizona gestured angrily with her right hand. “I only slept with her because I thought you were fucking Mark, and that you two were about to go and have this big happy family while I had to sit here and watch it happen.” Angry tears stung her eyes. “It was a mistake, one that I’ve already apologized for.”
“So we both fucked up,” Callie shot back as her own eyes began to burn. “I didn't have sex with Mark this time, but I can't change the fact that I used to. A long time ago. What happened with him before was just a...a relapse. A moment of seeking comfort, but nothing more.” She stepped up, her hand shaking as she reached out for the blonde.
She just needed contact. Any kind of contact.
Callie's warm hand gently curved around her girlfriend's forearm. “I don't wanna have sex with Mark. Not ever, ever again.” She smiled just slightly. “I only ever wanna have sex with you. Okay?"
It was the touch of Callie’s hand that diffused Arizona. She felt the anger and hurt slowly start to drain away, and was finally able to nod. “Me too.”
She managed a shaky smile. “See? This is why I hate being the jealous type. It never leads to any fun.” Arizona moved her arm so she could grasp Callie’s hand softly within her own. “Thank you for telling me. Er, not ‘thank you’, because I’m pretty sure I could have lived without ever having that mental image burned into my brain, but…thanks for being honest about it.”
Callie nodded with a soft smile. “That's what I want for us,” she replied in a gentle whisper. “I want us to be honest. Completely honest.” She gave the hand in her own a squeeze as her smile faltered just a bit. “And in the spirit of complete honesty...”
Arizona's smile faded, too.
“Mark,” Callie started again, pausing with a slightly nervous laugh. “You see...I...I wasn't the only one that...” She hesitated. “Touched.”
Arizona's brow lifted.
Callie laughed nervously once again. “Mark kinda...touched 'it' too.”
Arizona's face immediately twisted in disgust. “Ew! You mean he...you watched him...?”
Callie's eyes widened. “No!” she quickly cut in. “No. Not...not that.” She swallowed back once more. “He touched...my...it.”
Both of Arizona’s hands instantly flew up into the air, waving frantically and cutting Callie off. “Okay! Okay! I get it! You two had a thing. Not an all-the-way type thing, but there was stuff involved, and I never, ever need to know any of it, okay? Sound good? Great.”
Shuddering violently, Arizona stepped around Callie to scoop up her lab coat from the bench and throw it over her arm. “Ugh. We’re never having sex again,” she stated in a completely serious voice, feigning a mortified expression.
Callie's eyes widened just a little more as she turned to fully face her girlfriend. “That's a joke, right? You're joking here? Because I don't think it's fair to say we can never have sex again just because Mark and I felt eachother's...'it's'.”
Arizona cast a sideways glance at Callie as she dug through the pocket of her coat. “Not until you use the decontamination shower in the Infectious Diseases ward.” She barely hid her smile.
“Oh come on!” Callie instantly shot back. “He barely touched it! For like a whole...minute!”
Arizona looked up with a sharply raised brow. “I'm not touching your 'it' again until I'm thoroughly convinced 'it' is Sloan-fectious free.”
Callie's eyes were still wide as she stared back at her lover. “You gotta be kidding. I showered this morning! And many times since then!”
Arizona shrugged, shaking her head with an ‘oh well’ expression.
“Arizona! We’ve had sex like a hundred times since then!” Callie snapped.
Arizona kept her gaze on Callie as she pulled on her lab coat, and it wasn’t until she was adjusting the collar that a grin finally began to crack through her serious exterior.
She wasn’t able to contain the small bark of laughter at the look on Callie’s face, either.
A bit of the brunette's anger and disbelief ebbed away. She tilted her head. “Wait. Are you fucking with me?”
Arizona looked up to meet Callie’s gaze, her smile widening a little at the look in dark brown eyes. “No,” she finally answered as all traces of amusement just as quickly disappeared.
Callie's certainty vanished in an instant.
“We had all that sex before I knew Mark touched...” Arizona dropped her eyes down below Callie's waist. “'It',” she finished. “It's kinda...ruined now.”
Callie's eyes widened again. “Ruined?” she repeated sharply.
Arizona made a little ‘ick’ face, sticking her tongue between her teeth. “Yeah, a little. I’m a gold star lesbian, Calliope. I can only handle so much of you with the man-sex before I get creeped out.”
God, Callie Torres really was too easy to fuck with. Arizona loved her for it.
She stuck a few pens in her breast pocket, adjusting them until they were properly lined up with the labels facing forward. “Maybe in a week or two, when the germs have dissipated.”
Callie gaped at Arizona. “I’m going to kill you.”
Arizona snuck a glance up at Callie again, that cute little grin returning.
She jumped back with a loud squeal when Callie suddenly lunged forward and pinned her up against the row of lockers.
Arizona could barely breathe she was laughing so hard. “Baby, you are so cute,” she wheezed through her fit.
Callie held the blonde in place, her hips flush against Arizona's as she placed both hands against the lockers on either side of her girlfriend's head. “I bet you think you're real cute too, huh?”
The look in her dark eyes was...intense. Appropriate or not, Callie's annoyance at Arizona left her feeling more than a little turned on.
Arizona stopped laughing, but didn’t lose the grin. “Not as cute as you,” she beamed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
She ran her hands down her girlfriend’s sides and linked them behind the small of her back. “I love you, even if you have boy cooties, Calliope.”
Callie arched a brow. “Cooties?”
Arizona shrugged. “I work with six year olds.”
Callie snorted. “Doesn't mean you have to act like one.” She finally smiled a little as she shook her head, gazing intently at Arizona.
Who was she kidding?
She could never stay mad at those eyes. Not for very long.
Callie shook her head as she leaned back in to reclaim her girlfriend's lips. She had plenty of time to think of ways to get her back later.
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