Help 1 / 5

Title: Help – Not Just a River in Egypt

Author: wbelisabeth

Summary: Insert one tragic event into Arizona's past and put MFEO to the test. AU.

Words: Story is under 10k. Chapter is under 2k

Warnings/Spoiler/Important: There are references to a lot of Callie/Arizona moments on the show, but they are usually small allusions, and not anything life changing. The references could include any episode ever aired, because that's just how I roll. No season 7 spoilers.

Rating: PG for the most part, I don't even think there is any swearing in this… very wholesome of me.

Disclaimer for the whole story: All copyrighted materials referenced within this fan-fiction are 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 have been done so in an entirely fictional manner and is not meant to be libelous or defamatory.

AN: Thank you to ljuser Itsallcomealive who beta'd this for me. I really cannot thank you enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Chapter One: Not Just a River in Egypt

She had been walking for days. Literally. She knew that she should have stopped, but that was days ago. DAYS ago. The things her parents had told her about being lost (ie. Stand still, don't walk away, let them find her.) was debated for a small number of moments before completely throwing their advice out the window in a totally impulsive moment. She was starting to realise that it was her impulsive moments that seemed to be her downfall. Running off to Vegas. Kissing Erica. The long string of girls starting with Sadie Harris ending with the psychologist, Jenny, who eventually turned out to be an even bigger head case than all of her patients combined. Nope, Callie Torres needed to stop doing things so impulsively. She had survived out here for five days - if she was counting. She was hungry and thirsty and in need of a bath. Her friendship with Mark had always caused trouble and in the last few years, he had got her into a LOT of trouble, but this by far took the cake. She could die out here. She laughed off the idea. Callie Torres, Harper Avery Recipient dies in a Washington Forrest cold and alone. 'Maybe not so far from the truth' she admitted, silently to herself.

The last three trouble filled years had been hectic for her. Married, cheated on, gay, abandoned, oversexed, overworked, stalked and then shot, somewhere in between that she had managed to do enough research and enough experimentation to earn a Harper Avery, the first in Orthopaedics in twelve years. It was something that her father could be proud of, because apparently there wasn't much else. The whole gay thing had thrown him for a loop. Admittedly being caught in the throes with a nurse whose name she could barely remember was not a good way of introducing her father to her newfound lifestyle. She had cut him off and he had cut her off. No contact for over a year, including her birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas until she was lying in a hospital bed after being shot by a dead patient's husband. She was a hero who had saved a child's life and apparently it was enough to shock her parents into speaking to her once again. Eventually she healed, but she still needed an outlet.

The no-sex pact had been working for the last couple of months and it was something she had credited the quality of her research with, but with the medical trial over with she had nothing to do. Mark was always one for the outdoors, making her go fishing and hiking with her because Derek was too busy with his wife. Mark suggested they go on a hike and she jumped at the idea to get away from the hospital. He was a little reluctant to plan such an intensive hike, after all she had only had major surgery a month previous, but Mark could never say no to Callie and so he was just another contributing factor to the mess that the brunette was now in.

She walked slowly, her full fitness had not returned added to the fact that she had been walking for five days, four hours and forty seven minutes, slow was about all she could do. She could feel consciousness fade a little, but she kept on hoping the next step would bring her closer to home. The next step she took did not, in fact lead her closer to home, but it did lead her closer to sea level. She fell what felt like 20 feet, in reality it was really closer to eight. It was upon reaching the bottom of wherever it was that she had landed, that Calliope Torres let consciousness fade away completely.

Darkness engulfed her. She had let it. She had shut out the world four years ago. Shut out laughter, shut out love, shut out life. She had first come to this place of serenity when she was only four years old, and the memories that she held for it had brought her back. This place had healed her some, of course she would never fully heal not from the things that had scarred her so wholly. She loved the weather here. She had loved the rain and the wind. She loved the three hour trip to the city, she loved that she could put her medical skills to some use, even if she was so isolated. She loved her new life or rather she loved that she could leave her old life behind so comfortably.

Her footsteps kept rhythm with her heart. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. She kept the beat. Even through the rough parts, past the tree roots and uneven ground it was there. She ran this trail every day. Like clock-work. Regimented. She used order as coping mechanism, she always had, and even when she had little to complain about, little to cope with, she still remained the ordered, organized person. Every step planned out. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. The light flickered through the trees, bathing her in sunshine. It was almost enough to remind her of those days when life made sense, when she would spend the hours at the beach or at the park with her family. Almost. Some things were buried too deep to ever see the light of day. She kept her pace, step after step. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. Therapy she told herself. It had nothing to do with the cabin fever she had been feeling since she had uprooted her life to a cabin in the middle of Washington somewhere. It had nothing to do with her vanity, her own requirement that she always had to look super hot naked. Even if no one was around to see it. Nope, it was therapy – or so she would lie to herself. The truth was that therapy is about facing the truth, and that was something that Arizona Robbins stopped doing four years ago. So while she was facing forward, it was just another way for her to run from the past. Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right, Boom-boom, Left, Boom-boom, Right. She knew the trail, she knew the slope, what she didn't recognize was the soft cries for help a few feet off the path. She also didn't know that the pit where the voice was coming from existed.

That is, until she fell into it.

"AAaaaahhhhhh. Jeeeeee-pers."

Arizona immediately stopped. She felt searing pain and a twinge of anger at the intruder, until she looked closer at the woman who was crawling over to her. Even though the woman before her had tear filled eyes and a clammy complexion and though the blondes mind was clouded with pain she still thought 'this may just be the most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my life'.

"Are you ok?" Arizona couldn't answer. Not because she was dumbstruck by the woman in front of her, but because she feared that profanities may come tumbling out of her mouth and never stop if she even thought about opening her mouth. She shook her head to indicate the negative.

The brunette looked over at her leg and gasped.

"I really don't think you are ok. Does it hurt, apart from the leg?"

Another shake of her head. Another negative.

"I'm going to look it over, I am an orthopedic surgeon, so I've seen this sort of thing before, is it ok if I look over it?" Callie's energy had returned instantaneously when she was met with the sight of the disfigured knee.

This time she nodded, trying to smile, it came out as a wince. Callie knelt beside the blonde-haired woman and gently pressed against the leg, leaving the obviously dislocated knee well alone. The brunette eventually pressing on the leg a little too hard resulting in Arizona's body tensing up completely. Callie lifted her hand and stroked her cheek.

"It'll be ok." She whispered softly. She moved her hands down the leg, again adding pressure and feeling for any breaks.

"I'm Callie Torres." She looked up at the blonde. There was a small flash of recognition in the blondes eyes.

"Arizona Robbins." She managed to squeak out.

"So not to be rude or anything but when I was screaming for help, I had kind of hoped it would be in the form of me getting out of this place rather than getting company." Suddenly the pain over took her and the teasing tone that Callie had just used was ignored as anger stirred in Arizona.

"Help?" She asked angrily. She took a deep calming breath – it didn't help. "Help? Well be grateful anyone even knows you are ali– AAAAaaaahhhh. WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"I had to put it back in place."

"You just put it back?"

"Yeah. You may need surgery, but the longer the joint is out of its socket the worse it is, so… Sorry, but it's for the best."

"You're not… Calliope Torres, are you?"

"Calliope Torres?"

"Harper Avery, 2010?"

"Are you a surgeon too?"

"Nope, I… I'm just an interested party."

"Yes that's me. You can call me Callie."

"You made me fall down a ten foot ditch, I have to deal with the name Arizona, you have to deal with Calliope."

"I made you fall down?" She asked incredulously, but really feeling amused at the blondes statement.

"I run this path every day. For years I have run this path and not once have I fallen down this… this… hole. So yes YOU made me fall down. You are the only irregularity, the only variation, the only anomaly from my normal days, so using my awesome powers of deduction, I can safely conclude that YOU made me fall down."

"Ok then, it would seem that I made you fall down." She smiled a very amused smile.