Title: Three Strikes

Author: wbelisabeth

Type: One – Shot

Spoilers: Season 6 Episode 23 and 24

Summary: Did they really mean the things they said?

Pairing: Callie/Arizona

Disclaimer: All copyrighted materials reference within this fan-fiction is not mine. I do not own Grey's Anatomy or any characters of Grey's. This is for entertainment purposes only. I am not making any money out of this whatsoever. Any real people, places, events etc referenced in this work of fiction is done so in an entirely fictional manner and is not mean to be libellous or defamatory.

"Did you mean it?"

"What?"

"That you can't trust me? In us?"

She sighs and I know that it's true. I feel disappointed and angry, but then mostly I feel like I should show her. Show her that she's my whole world. That she is the only one who has ever made me feel like this. Not George, not Erica, not Mark. Just her.

"It's not us, really. I know you love me. I know I love you. I know it. I know that you would never, on purpose hurt me… I said I'm not broken. But… Everyone's broken somehow." She smiles a sad smile, I take a step closer to her and wrap my arms around her waist. "Three."

Three?

"I've been left by three women for men." She swallows.

I told her I knew squat about her. While I do know her. I know her likes and dislikes. I know her moods. I know her body. I do know her. I just don't know much about her.

"The first one was Joanne. My first… everything. I… we were together for about three years. We were at the same high school. But the first year of college she changed. We were together for most of it, until she started to mess around. With men. Lots of them.

"I got over it. It was hard, but I just told myself we were young… and that college wasn't the best place to be in a monogamous relationship."

"I met Holly in Med-School and we weren't really anything until we got into John Hopkins together. We spent the summer together and then our intern year… I remember what it was like to trying to fit in our long shifts and time together. We were together for our first two years of residency… and she decided she wasn't such a lesbian anymore… or at all. That she loved me, but not enough, or like that… or whatever you say to someone who loves you in a way that you don't… the words are kind of blurry."

She looks up at me and I am beginning to see where the newborn comment, the 'lesbian vacation', the trust issues all come from.

"Emily was my last serious girlfriend before you. She had always been gay. Always, like I had… but she was more of an in your face type… you know?"

I smile. I know what she's talking about.

"She was all about marching around with the rainbow flag and gay rights and all that… I loved her for it. I saw what she was doing and I was happy to be a part of it. We were together for four and a half years. One day I came home looking for my favorite pair of earrings that I had been given by parents when I graduated college… I turned our house upside down… I even looked through the garbage…I found a positive pregnancy test. I was livid that she could make that kind of decision without me.

"So I confronted her. In all my anger I didn't realize the other possibility… that she could have… When she told me I laughed. I laughed Calliope. Like it was a joke." She leans into my chest. "Because it was a joke. It was impossible. Totally and completely impossible that it could happen. But it did. The universe's joke on Arizona. Three women. Two were secure in their sexuality… It shouldn't happen like that… I gave them all I had and it wasn't enough. I've just been waiting for the day that…"

I don't let her finish. I refuse to hear the words leave her mouth.

My lips are on hers and I watch as she closes her eyes, before I do the same. I pull back and lean my forehead on hers.

"I can't erase my past Arizona… and all of it means that I am here with you… so I don't want to change any of it." Again I pull her against my chest as I feel her tears soak my shirt. I stroke her hair, like she has so many times before. "Let me be the strong one sometimes. I know that I've had to lean on you. I've probably relied on you too much, that's what this is. But it's both of us. When you can't be a good man in storm… let me be. Let me hold you up when you feel like you can't anymore. Let me. Because after today? After all this, I know I can be what you deserve. Please just let me."

I feel her crying a little more. I rub circles on her back. I offer no more words.

When I feel her go heavy in my arms, I pick her up and take her into my bedroom, laying her on the bed, before climbing on the bed wrapping one arm around her body and tangling my legs in hers.

"Please never leave?"

I smile and pull her tighter. I will try showing her every day that she is my world. That I don't want to live without her. That I couldn't live without her. I can be anything I want when she is by my side. I can be enough.

"Never."