Title: Jail Break
Author: A. Windsor
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG
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. My one semester of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!
Summary: "I don't usually like to take time out of my surgeons' schedules for domestic issues, but Ms. Mahoney was particularly insistent this time."
Author's Note: Just a little short something while I work on longer Robbins-Torres stories. More pointless than most.
Arizona arrives outside Chief Toshima's office with a fair amount of curiosity. Does the Chief of Surgery want to discuss her employee reviews? She's pretty sure they aren't due for another few weeks. Maybe that incident on the peds floor yesterday? But that wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe...
"Calliope?" She's surprised to see her wife waiting at the chief's door. She leans in for a quick kiss. "You were paged, too?"
"Yeah, I though she wanted to talk about..." she trails off when she notices Meredith and Derek approaching from opposite directions, grabbing a handful of Arizona's scrub top. "Crap."
"What?"
"Crap," Meredith repeats when she reaches them.
"Oh yeah. Crap," Derek thirds.
"What is going on?" Arizona demands.
"Arizona, baby, I need you to remember that no matter what the kids do, boarding school is never the right answer..."
"What? Oh... You think this is about them?"
"Definitely," Derek confirms.
Toshima's door opens, and she beckons them in. Miss Rachel from the daycare is seated, waiting.
"Thanks for coming. I don't usually like to take time out of my surgeons' schedules for domestic issues, but Ms. Mahoney was particularly insistent this time."
"Crap," Call whispers in her wife's ear.
"Today," Miss Rachel says, half-frazzled, half-amused. "Today, Asa, Katie, and Lena carried out a jail break from the daycare floor."
"What?"
"They wandered around the hospital for two hours evading staff before Darius from security cornered them in the cafeteria and convinced them to turn themselves in."
Arizona is pissed, Meredith and Callie are trying desperately not to laugh, and Derek is vaguely amused when he asks:
"Isn't it your job to make sure they stay in daycare?"
"They do love Darius," Meredith comments, struggling to maintain her composure.
Callie notices the look on Arizona's face and tries to defuse the situation.
"I'm sorry, Miss Rachel, we are not laughing at your situation, and we are very, very sorry that they undermined your authority like that, but Dr. Shepherd has a point. How did three kids get out of daycare? It's not very safe for them to run around the hospital unsupervised. I mean, Lena's only four!"
"But she's the one with all the ideas. Asa has the plan. And Katie gives them the confidence to actually carry them out. According to my source..."
"Who is?" Derek asks, smirking.
"Grey Sloan. He told on them when they refused to bring him along. They snuck out through the fire door in the supply closet."
"Baby Grey ratted? On Lena? He must've been really mad," Calle notes.
Rachel does not look amused that these are the details that they are getting hung up on.
"I'm sorry, Miss Rachel. Dr. Torres is right. We're not trying to make light of the situation. I think we're just wondering what you want from us," Derek reasons.
"And why we weren't told when you lost our children for hours," Arizona adds icily.
"They weren't lost. Security locked down the main doors. And they weren't looking to leave. They were in the hospital at all times."
"Yeah, sorry, Miss Rachel, that's not helping," Callie says apologetically, placing a calming hand on Arizona's upper arm. "But don't worry; she's more mad at them than at you. I hope they've been disciplined?"
"Yes. Time out. And now they've been separated for the rest of the day. Probably the next few days, too."
"Okay. And we'll certainly have a nice long talk with Katie about respect and rules in daycare," Meredith says.
"And not letting those Robbins-Torres kids lead her astray," Derek teases.
"Don't worry. They won't be any more trouble for you," Arizona promises firmly. "Should we come get them now? I just have charts until the end of my shift; they could sit in my office with me."
"No, I think it would be better to leave them. Out is obviously where they would rather be," Rachel says.
"Excellent. Now everyone is on the same page. And if there are future events..."
"There won't be," Arizona interjects, and Callie winces. She feels bad for Lena and Asa already. (Just a little. They do deserve it.)
"If there are future events with anyone's children going missing from the nursery, Ms. Mahoney, perhaps we'll make sure to inform the parents," Dr. Toshima continues. "If anything more serious had occurred..."
"Yes, I, of course... I'm sorry. We didn't want to panic anyone. I should get back. I'll see you all this evening."
Miss Rachel takes her leave.
"We are so sorry, Chief. It'll never happen again," Arizona apologizes profusely. "They certainly know better."
"I'm sure it won't. And they're still very young, Dr. Robbins. Don't be too hard on them," Dr. Webber's diminutive replacement says kindly. "Asa's only in kindergarten, right? And the girls younger?"
"Four and five," Derek answers. "And Ally usually keeps them out of trouble, but she's at a friend's today for a birthday party."
"Right. Of course. The big sister is always a powerful tool. Well then. Go on. Save some lives."
"Thanks, Chief."
Outside the door, Callie and Meredith lose it, laughing hysterically. Derek continues to smirk in his McDreamy way.
"It's not funny," Arizona crosses her arms over her chest.
"Oh, it kinda is, baby, admit it," Callie coaxes as Derek and Meredith get paged back to Neuro. "They're little rebels! Leading jail breaks!"
"The hospital is not their playground."
"I know. And believe me, they will get an earful tonight, without a smile in sight, but they're not here right now. So you can at least admit, just to me, right here, that our kids are pretty freaking cute. And they were at least working together and not against each other."
"To break out of daycare."
"It's a start!"
Callie's wide grin is infectious.
"Okay, okay. They're cute. I'm still not happy they were alone in the hospital."
"I know."
"So how are we going to keep them from breaking out again? Besides scaring the crap out of them," Arizona asks, arms still crossed despite Callie's attempts to soothe her with warm hands on her shoulders.
"We'll tell them they have to stay and keep an eye on their hermanita and Susie Sloan. That it's their job to look after the babies. And to stop being so mean to Baby Grey."
"Maybe we should stop calling him Baby Grey."
"Good luck with that, mother of Acer, Baby Blondie, and Care Bear."
"Are you and Mark incapable of calling anyone by just their real name?"
"I call you Arizona all the time."
"True."
"Because you can't improve on that silliness."
"Hey, watch it, Calliope."
Callie grins and leans in to kiss her cheek as Arizona continues.
"So you think older sibling guilt will work on them?"
"Definitely. They're your kids. Even at four and six they've got the whole honor and duty thing engrained into them. Give them a job, and they'll see it through."
"Okay." Arizona's hands fall to her sides as Callie gives her a reassuring squeeze.
"Okay," Callie sighs. "So. You go do rounds and chart. I have a quick surgical tib repair, then rounds. I'll grab them after and meet you in your office. Then we can give them a good talking to and go home for game night? I believe Asa and I owe you and Lena a good ass-kicking at Uno Attack!"
Arizona smiles and kisses her briefly. "You're going down, Torres."
"You talk a good game, Robbins," Callie laughs as they part ways to go back to their respective floors. "We'll just have to wait and see. Love you!"
"Love you, too, loser!"
el fin