Chapter 1

Callie

Struggling to find places to place most of her things around the apartment she shared with Penny, Arizona just left for Seattle after helping Sofia set-up her room. She couldn't be more thankful for that her ex-wife just let her move to New York with their daughter. With Penny at work and Sofia sleeping, she's just staring at a couple of boxes that needs unpacking. Silently thinking.

Beep Beep.

She reached the phone that was lying next to a pile of papers that needed sorting. She read the message,

Arizona Robbins: Hey! I just landed a couple of minutes ago. Back in the hospital. Did you hear that Alex beat up DeLuca? He's facing felony charges. I need a replacement fellow now. Anyway! Tell Sofia I miss and love her! Take Care!

Shocked about the news, she quickly replied. Callie set the phone in the night stand and started to finish unpacking her stuff. She got to the last box, opening it she saw something she was not sure to unpack.

Arizona

Trying to sort applications for Alex's replacement was hard. He was her student, she invested on him. She loves him like a brother. Replacing him was not possible. She just needed an extra set of hands. Of course she won't find any hands equivalent to Alex but still she had to. Annoyed by the idea of finding another peds fellow, she grabbed her phone and sent a message to Callie. It was just instinct to tell Callie, she always talks to her when something is bothering her and she knows she have not done that a lot recently, or after the divorce but now she thinks that they can even be friends. She really rather be Callie's friend that nothing to her at all. After all she's the only person Arizona loved.

Beep Beep. Beep Beep.

Calliope Torres: Yeah. Mer told me about the Alex, but Felony charges?! That sucks. But I honestly don't blame him, he saw DeLuca on top of Jo. I would probably do the same thing. No, I'd to the same thing! And I break bones for a living! What was she thinking? Sofia's sleeping, but as soon as she wakes up I'll give her a kiss and a big hug from you.

Calliope Torres: Don't worry about hiring a new fellow. Every peds surgeon wants to be in your program. They are lining up for you. ;) Stay safe Arizona.

Remembering that specific phrase with a heavy sigh, she returned to reading profile of the applicants.

"Come in!" Hearing the knocking at her office door, she raised her head up and saw Bailey.

"Hey! Are you still reviewing potential applicants?" Bailey said with a guilty face.

"Yeah, I have 5 or more to review but I have short listed the ones I like" Arizona returning to read the applications.

"About that, uh, I may already have one for you. I mean! If you approve." Bailey responded with a guilty smile.

Arizona crunched up her eye brows and reaching for the folder in Bailey's hand.

"I talked to an old classmate of mine in med school, she has this resident. Best she had ever seen in years. Kind of a genius. Her words, not mine!"

"Mhmm. Sure. Genius like Karev? Or me?" Arizona said while reading the profile.

"No, and you know I have no choice about that. He was one of my students too. And this is not even acceptable in my terms. But I have to make the decision now. He was mine too. Him, Grey, Stevens, Yang and O'Malley." Bailey keeping her head down now. Remembering that out of her 5 interns, she only has Grey on staff.

"I'm sorry. It's just hard for me. He was good. He was my pick. In Grey's language, he's my person. You know? Callie is not here anymore. And she was not my person for a couple of years now, he's rough but he was always there, the car crash, plane crash, me cheating on my wife, the divorce and the custody battle." Placing her hand in her hair. "He's like a brother to me, I can't replace him."

"You don't have to replace him, you just need an extra hand in your department. You are running two departments now Robbins. You are not an octopus to manage all that!" Giving Arizona the famous Bailey eyes. "Now review that! If you decide to take that "genius" in your wing page me and I'll make the call. I have to do some Chief things now!" Before closing the door in Arizona's office, Bailey looked at the head of pediatrics and maternal medicine. "And Robbins, you owe me a Chief of Orthopedics too!" Bailey snarled while walking away.

Arizona can't help but smile remembering Callie. The woman she loved. She returned to review the application recommended by the chief.

Amazed by the application, Arizona wondered why Bailey's former classmate would let a resident like this go. Licensed biomedical engineer, passed the exam with flying colors, research was way beyond his/her age. Only thing that she didn't like was the idea that this person could have done something wrong to be passed along.

Callie

Wandering around the streets of New York, she keeps on wondering why everybody is saying that New York is the greatest city in the world. It was busy, crowded. Her mind tracing back to what happened earlier that day.

"Dr. Smith, you paged?" Callie asked the attending peds surgeon.

"Yes Dr. Torres, I have 12 year old fractured femur due to MVC. We need you to do an above knee amputation" Smith responded without even looking to Callie and busy writing something in the kid's chart.

Callie raised her eye brows. "I think I need a little more information about that. I can't just cut off someone's leg without knowing the history." This hits Callie a little closer to home when she gave a heads up to Karev to amputate Arizona's leg.

"I am the attending and chief of pediatric surgery here Dr. Torres, you are no more than an attending orthopedic consult in this case. I already reviewed the case, the history and everything else. This is my strategy to save the kid's life. You are no longer the chief of a department or a board member here. I can get another orthopedic consult but you are the on-call consult, are you in or out?" Dr. Smith countered.

Callie was surprised with Dr. Smith's attitude. "With all due respect Dr. Smith, I am not implying anything here, I just want to make sure everything is in place here and I don't want the child to grow up with a disability because you are too lazy to extract every option available." Callie responded with a curled eye brows.

"By all means Dr. Torres, review the charts. I need to get the patient to pre-op." Dr. Smith said walking away from Callie.

Callie rushed to review the case, Dr. Smith was right. The infection was too much spread out. She had hoped she can avoid these cases, especially with kids. Without thinking, she reached inside her pocket and sent a message.

Beep beep.

Arizona Robbins: I'll explain later, but in my opinion she's right. That's the last option. I'll call you when my shift ends. Go be awesome.

With Arizona's confirmation she agreed to the surgery, she was a bit lost in the new hospital but found the OR that she was looking for.

"Glad to see you Dr. Torres" Dr. Smith said without looking up. Working on the patient.

Callie was being gloved by the scrub nurse. "Mhm. 10 blade." She focused on the patient. Trying to remove the images of Arizona in her head.

Arizona

"Chief." Arizona entered Bailey's office with the applicant's folder.

"Dr. Robbins, sit down. I was about to page you about that" Bailey responded pointing at the couch on the left side of her office.

"I'm impressed. But I have a question though." Arizona unsure of how to ask the chief about the applicant.

"Why are they passing along a good surgeon?" Bailey inferred.

"Yes. It's unbelievable that they didn't offer a position. All the recommendation letters are good but"

Bailey cut her off, "The applicant was too invested in the research. The overlap of pediatric surgery and orthopedic. Having the best pediatric and orthopedic department in the country, the applicant only wanted to work here." Bailey offering bottled water to Arizona. "Well, we still have the best pediatric department."

Arizona sighed. Without Callie running the department, it was not the best. She didn't think about that when she let Callie go to New York with her Perfect Pretty Penny and her daughter. She didn't think like a board member of the hospital. She didn't even think like a doctor. She thought by letting Callie go, she's giving the happiness she was not able to give to the woman she love. It breaks her heart seeing Callie mope around the hospital. She had to do something.

"You have my approval Bailey." Arizona said while standing up. "We need to notify the board too."

"Alright. Thank you Robbins" Bailey replied. "Torres is still a board member, is it too much to ask if you can get her consent to this? I'll call a meeting tomorrow for the board's approval."

Beep Beep.

Calliope Torres: Hey, can you check this case for me. I know I have no right to ask, but I just want your input.

Opening the attached file, Arizona's eyes widen. With a heavy sigh, she responded to Callie's message.

"I'll talk to her later Bailey." Arizona steps out of the office.

Arizona resumed to her day to day work. Few simple surgeries, saving little humans inside their mothers, having no one in Alex's position she was loaded. She dragged herself in the attending's lounge after a long day. Hoping there is no more emergency patient until her shift ends. She relaxed and changed her clothes after looking at the clock. She picks up her bag and head out to the parking lot. She reached her house, empty house. She missed the little girl who makes the house unbelievably chaotic. How can a little girl like that make a mess that big? She chuckled, Hurricane Sofia. She sat down with her wine, pulled her phone out of her bag and dialed Callie's number. She wanted to make sure that her ex-wife understands why she recommended that procedure and she needed to know her answer to her new peds prospect.

Callie

Looks around to pass time until Sofia's end of class, she walks in a coffee shop with the least people inside, she just wanted to be somewhere quiet. Which was a rare occasion in this city, the city that never sleeps. 'but I love to sleep' she tells her self. She ordered her coffee and sat at the corner table.

Ring ring ring.

Callie answered the phone. Looking beyond the shop's glass window.

"Hey." Callie answered sullen.

"Hi. You okay?" Arizona replied.

"Yeah. Long day. Long ass day. How about you?" Callie drank her coffee.

"Busy day, with Alex gone to the clinic, I have to do his surgery too. I'll tell you about that after, about that case earlier, I just wanted to know why you had to ask me about that." Arizona inquired.

"Uhm, well. I just wanted to know if that peds chief was right about his conclusion. I know she's the chief here. But you know, you're the best so I had to ask. And, well. I just don't want that kid to you know." Callie rambled with her words. She always trusted Arizona's judgment. She was a hell of a surgeon.

"Well Calliope, I am the best!" Arizona exclaimed. Laughing. "It was the only option, you save that kid's life. There was no other way. I read that chart and with the history. You don't need to feel guilty. The parents will thank you for giving that kid another shot in life. Like you did with me." Arizona stated. "I never did thank you, for saving me. My life. I'm sorry about that. For being selfish, that it affects your judgment now."

Callie was stunned. She always figured that her ex-wife hated her for that. "T-thank you Arizona." She was stuttering. Unsure why, she got nervous all of a sudden, she never heard her wife be so honest like that. And hearing her name coming out of Arizona's voice was so good, whenever she hears her name from her ex-wife like that, she forgets why she hates her name so much. "Sofia's still in school, I'm still waiting for her dismissal time so I can fetch her"

"Oh. She's still there? Is it a little late for her to be in school?" Arizona wondered.

"Yeah, I think they have that club recruiting today. There's a lot of club she wants to join. Little miss is such a type A like you!" Callie giggled.

"Hey! Our kid is awesome! I miss having her destroy my living room." Arizona laughed at the memory when Sofia was home with her, a lot of her stuff was lying in the floor. She was always cleaning up food stains in the carpet and sofa.

"She misses you too." Callie scratched her neck a bit, knowing that she was the reason why the mother-daughter combo was separated.

"Don't scratch your neck." Arizona stated.

"What? I'm not!" Callie lied.

"You keep forgetting that I was your wife once, I know your tone. The guilty tone. Then you'll scratch your neck. Arizona said with a little smile on her lips.

"I have a guilty tone?" Callie asked.

"Yes, you have a lot of tone. A lot of faces too." Laughing so much, Arizona almost choked on her wine.

"What faces?! I don't have that!" Callie defended.

"Mhm. You have the denial face now." Arizona conclude. Smirking.

"No, I don't." Callie wondered why she was so hot all of a sudden.

Laughing still, Arizona responded. "Yeah. Sure." Filling her glass with more wine. "Anyway, Bailey asked me to ask for your opinion on this new fellow."

"What? Why?" Callie questioned.

"Uhm well, you are still technically a board member. And Bailey wanted the decision of the board" Arizona said while sipping her wine.

"Okay. Send me the file. I have to go pick up Sofia now. She might be a little agitated if she can't join all the club she wanted." Callie whispered "Like you." And laughing so hard the people in the coffee shop must have heard and think that she was crazy.

"What was that Calliope?!" Arizona smiling. She have never talk to Callie this comfortably. Now she's teasing her already.

"Nothing nothing!" Raising her hard like a wanted criminal, Callie replied. "I have to go fetch little miss princess Sofia." Still smiling so hard hearing her name once again. No one can ever say her name like Arizona does. Even Penny.

"Kiss her for me!" Arizona yelled. Callie thinking was there a kiss for her too? No, scratch that. She let you go, to your girlfriend now. Still wondering where that came from.

"Always! Bye!" Callie dropped the call with a smile. Could she and Arizona be this casual? She loved the idea of having Arizona as her friend. She was always her best friend. She could always tell everything on her mind to her ex-wife. Now hating that terminology, she now considers Arizona as her friend, her co-parent.