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Callie was halfway through giving blood when Arizona turned up. Her arm was out to the side and she was sipping on apple juice as she read through some magazine that had been left out – not that she had any interest in what the Kardashians were getting up to, but she was bored out of her mind because the room was practically empty.
“Hey,” Arizona grinned, dropping into the chair next to Callie and sticking her arm out so that the nurse could tie the rubber around her bicep and prick her.
“Hey,” Callie answered, setting down her magazine and with a smile. “You’re late.”
“Ugh, I know,” Arizona said on a sigh, leaning back into her chair and pulling her left leg up underneath her. She winced a little at the pinch of the needle going in, but then it was smooth sailing. She thanked the nurse, then continued, “my patient coded for ten minutes before we got her back. Stable now, but it was scary. Her dad’s a wrestler and I did not want to have to tell him that I’d lost his little girl.”
“I’m sorry,” Callie said softly. “Good on you for still coming up here. You could have done this another day.”
Arizona shook her head with a determined smile. “Nope. Every fourth Friday on the dot, as it has been since day one of my internship. Can’t change it now.”
Callie chuckled, “fair enough.”
The nurse took Callie’s canula out after a few more minutes, instructing her to hold the cotton pad over the needle site for a few minutes and keep sipping the juice, so she did.
Arizona yawned. “You know, I can’t wait to go home with you today. Just us in the apartment because Hunt and Yang are working overnight and probably screwing in an on call room.”
Another laugh sounded from Callie’s chest. “You’re not wrong. Yep, just us. A movie, some take out, and dare I say some dessert?” She smirked.
“Calliope,” Arizona gasped and then giggled quietly, leaning over to swat Callie’s thigh. “Honestly, what am I gonna do with you?”
“I can think of a few things—”
“Stop it,” Arizona warned, leaning back in her chair and flexing her left hand to try and keep the blood flowing. “Or we’ll be the ones hogging an on call room.”
Callie held her hands out and relented with a chuckle. “Alright, fine. Save it for later.”
They dissolved into idle chatter for a while until Arizona’s pager decided to scream and shatter the calm atmosphere. Arizona checked it and swore under her breath, then said, “it’s the kid that coded. I gotta go.”
“Hey,” Callie said warily, standing up and holding her hands out, completely stable on her feet. “Karev’ll have been paged too. Don’t go rushing about when you haven’t drunk your juice yet.”
“Don’t try and stop me, Calliope Torres,” Arizona said firmly, pulling her own canula free and applying pressure to it as she apologised to the nurse and stood up too. Her legs were a little wobbly beneath her, but nothing she didn’t think she could shake off. She blinked rapidly, mildly concerned when the room swam but still convinced that she would wave it away.
Callie stepped closer. Arizona was swaying softly and her eyes were unfocused, and Callie could practically see how the situation was going to end. “Arizona,” she said sternly. “Sit back down.”
“M’fine,” Arizona said, her voice slightly distant to her own ears. “I need to go.”
Callie’s hands settled on her upper arms. “Sit down.”
“No,” Arizona snapped, swatting Callie’s support away and reaching for her white coat. She groped for it a few times, just a little to far to the left, then picked it up and started putting it on. As she did, her vision swam a little more, interspersed with black spots. She went to ask for that same support she’d refused, for Callie to catch her, but the words couldn’t come. She suddenly felt really hot, skin tingling, before her knees buckled and she tilted sideways, vision going black.
“Oh, God,” Callie said under breath, ducking to catch Arizona with an arm under her back. She fell like a sack of rocks and Callie hit the ground with one knee, cupping the back of Arizona’s head with one hand and holding her securely with her other arm as she called urgently, “I need some juice over here! And IV saline. This fool didn’t drink her juice.”
There was a gasp and a ‘Dr Robbins!’ from the nurse before she leapt into action. She rushed forward with the saline and a large cup of orange juice, setting both things on the table beside what had been Arizona’s chair.
Arizona was completely passed out in her arms, head lolling forward and limbs floppy as her white coat hung awkwardly from one arm. Callie hauled her back into her chair and tucked a blanket over her because she was shivering lightly before she lightly patted her cheek and said, “hey, Arizona? Wake up for me, my love.”
Blinking groggily and with the room spinning, Arizona came back to life enough to mumble, “the kid.”
“The kid will be fine,” Callie reassured, scanning Arizona’s face and finding her awfully pale. “You, on the other hand, came to give blood while horribly dehydrated and then stood up without so much as a sip of juice. I’m gonna give you IV saline and you can argue with the wall.”
Arizona cocked a weak eyebrow, glad that her vision had cleared up some and she could see the incredibly attractive concern written across Callie’s features. “You’re hot when you’re saving my life.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
Callie snorted, swiftly inserting another IV into Arizona’s opposite elbow and hanging a bag of saline. “I’m hardly saving your life more than I’m watering you like a plant. Just sit there and look pretty and drink your juice, okay? I’m not catching you again.”
“Muscles,” Arizona murmured, her hand lifting to run a single finger down Callie’s bicep. She nodded sagely. “Hot.”
“Stop it,” Callie huffed, reaching up and setting Arizona’s hand back onto the arm of the chair after pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “You’ll start feeling better in a few minutes, once the sugar from the juice sets in and the water gets into your dried up, desiccated little veins.”
There was humour in it, but Arizona pouted anyway. “Rude. It’s not my fault I only had one cup of coffee six hours ago and I’ve been too busy saving kids to have any more fluid since.”
“If you’re donating blood, you need to be hydrated,” Callie chastised lightly. “Practice as you preach, and all of that. How many times have you told me to hydrate on days where we’re donating?”
Arizona blushed and looked away. Callie was just glad to see more colour return to her cheeks.
“That’s what I thought,” Callie said, nodding smartly and smoothing Arizona’s hair back from her face before she kissed her forehead. “You’re daft.”
“You still love me,” Arizona said with a smug smile.
“Good thing too,” Callie answered good naturedly, sitting back down into the chair she’d been occupying and picking up her magazine again. She read a few lines, then glanced up over it and ordered, “drink your juice or I won’t give you dessert.”
Arizona’s eyes widened and she chugged her cup in one go, slamming it back to the table like a shot and wiping her mouth on the back of her hand with a radiant grin.
Callie was still watching over her magazine and her eyes flicked back to the words as she murmured, “well done.”