Lynx Book 3: A Callie Torres Story

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Jada stood outside the OR holding a trembling and sobbing Arizona Robbins in her arms. Callie had been in the OR with some of the hospital's best surgeons for going on four hours now.

She couldn't get Arizona to calm down at all, understandably, but Jada couldn't even get the other blond woman to speak to her coherently. Jada did manage to get Arizona to drink some water. The poor girl was so dehydrated and must've had a blazing headache.

Arizona was nearly sitting in Jada's lap as she had her arms wrapped tightly around Jada. Her grip around Jada was so tight she felt like Arizona was holding onto her for dear life. She had her head resting against Jada's shoulder and already sobbed through the soft fabric of her t-shirt.

Kate had been in a serious accident on her way out of work. She was walking on the sidewalk along one of the busiest city streets in Seattle when a little boy dropped his soccer ball and it bounced toward the road. The little boy ripped his hand from his moms and ran after the ball which had already bounced into the street.

Kate was the first one to react as she charged into the street after the little boy. She was able to push the little boy into another open lane as a car neared him. It missed the little boy and hit Kate instead.

She was in the OR of the ICU nearly on life support. From what Callie had told her about the accident earlier, things were not looking good.

Jada couldn't understand the pain in which Arizona was going through. She remembered Arizona telling her earlier in the day how excited she was to go out to dinner with Kate after work. Plans had changed drastically and she was now sitting outside of the OR as her coworkers fought to save her wife's life.

Jada looked up, a little startled, as Miranda Bailey walked into the room. She had been so focused on  Arizona that she hadn't even noticed the other woman enter the room.

She was thankful Bailey thought to bring the sobbing blonde a blanket. "Let's get you warmed up, Arizona," Bailey said as she and Jada began to wrap up the blonde. Arizona had goosebumps covering her arms that the two women quickly hid with the blanket.

"Jada, Callie wants to see you," Bailey said as she took a seat on the other side of the bench beside Arizona. "I'll keep an eye on her."

After a few moments of transferring Arizona into Bailey's arms, Jada headed into the OR prep room where she was instructed to meet Callie. And when she saw Callie, Jada immediately knew what her wife was going to say to her.

Callie's eyes were red from crying and before Jada could take in her broken appearance anymore, she was pulling Callie in for a tight hug.

"We couldn't do it," Callie sobbed into Jada's dry shoulder and Jada couldn't stop the tears that began to flow down her cheeks. "She flatlined on us... and... and."

"I know," Jada said softly as she cried. "You don't have to say it, I know."

"I don't know how I'm going to tell Arizona," Callie cried. "I could've done more, I should've done more. It's my fault we couldn't save her-"

"Calliope," Jada interrupted, sniffling and wiping the tears away from her blurred vision. "It was an accident," she started. "A freak accident. I know it, you know it, Arizona knows it. You did so much baby, I know you did. It is not your fault she didn't make it. It's nobody's fault."

"How do I tell Arizona I couldn't save her wife?" Callie cried. "She had a broken spine, a broken neck, punctured lung and fractured ribs. That's my job and I couldn't do it."

Jada was so thankful she could understand Callie nonverbally. With her mouth she was saying one thing and with her eyes she was saying another. Jada knew Callie was afraid. She was afraid of how Arizona would react when she finally found out exactly what happened and she was scared that Arizona would blame Kate's death on her just like she had done her leg.

"Baby, it's going to be okay," Jada tried to reassure her wife. "It's going to be okay."

•••

"Thank you, Calliope," Arizona said softly as she wrapped her arms tightly around Callie.

It was the next morning and everyone had spent the night together in the hospital. Everyone was heartbroken, crushed, and devastated, and took some time to process-to process everything.

Arizona was handling everything a lot better than Callie and Jada thought she would. After taking some time for herself and processing that her wife had passed away, she asked to know exactly what happened. And after Callie and their friends explained what happened, Arizona went around and personally thanked everyone. Jada was proud of her friend and she knew Callie was too. Arizona showed so much growth from the last traumatic event, and she knew that it just happened to be a freak accident.

The blonde had yet to let go of anyone really. And Jada was more than happy to provide some sort of physical comfort to Arizona. The blonde needed to be hugged and eventually her and Jada relaxed into a couch together.

She was relaxing into Callie while they talked with Kate's parents. Thankfully, there was no tension between Arizona and her wife's parents, as there had been before when discussing Kate and mostly her sexuality. As much as it hurt, they began to talk and prepare funeral arrangements.

When Arizona said she wanted to return to her apartment alone this afternoon, Callie and Jada shot down the idea in an instant. Without much convincing, Jada believed Arizona didn't want to ask for anything, they convinced the blonde to stay at their home for the time being.

Arizona and Kate didn't have any pets or anything that would need to be taken care of while she was gone, but Callie and Jada wanted her to have her own space without truly being alone.

"Thank you both," Arizona said appreciatively.

"We're here for you and whatever you need don't hesitate to ask."

•••

Jada slowly made her way into the living room to find Sofia cuddled up in Arizona's lap. While Callie went with Arizona to gather some things from her apartment, Jada stayed at home and with some help from her mother and Sofia, got a room set up for Arizona.

She also had to explain to her little girl that Aunt Kate had passed away. Sofia was absolutely devastated and it broke Jada's heart to see her little girl so upset. When Callie and Arizona arrived later in the afternoon, the little girl was bounded to Arizona.

Sofia hadn't left Arizona's side for more than 15 minutes at a time. Callie and Jada had tried to discipline the little girl for not leaving Arizona alone at all. They expected her to want to have some space to grieve and process without a three year old following her around. But, Arizona happily welcomed the little girl.

Callie and Jada suspected their daughter was going to ask to sleep in Arizona's room and they were going to let her as long as it was okay with Arizona. Sofia and Arizona looked so comfortable together.

The couple also set up a guest room to be Arizona's. Callie brought whatever Arizona wanted over except for her bed. It was unspoken that everyone knew this was going to be a while and the couple offered to bring Arizona's bed over. But Arizona respectfully declined, stating that it might be too hard to sleep in a bed she shared with Kate so soon after her passing.

Jada sat down beside Callie on the couch and rested her head on her wife's shoulder as she started the movie Sofia wanted to watch.