// LOVING SOMEONE //

chapter 3

pov: arizona

I wake up groggily to the sound of my loud and bothersome alarm going off. 9:30 a.m.
Only four hours of sleep, but i figured it's better than nothing. I roll over onto my back, not even wanting to sit up just yet. I nearly jump at the sight of her next to me, I had almost totally forgotten she had stayed here for the night. Poor thing must be so exhausted, she didn't even seem like she heard the alarm. I rolled to face her, still sleeping, so peaceful and still. I didn't want to wake her, but our shifts start at 10:30 a.m. and i wouldn't want her to miss work unless she told me she planned to call out. I muster up the courage to wake her, shaking her shoulder slightly. She buries her face into her pillow as she begins to wake up, avoiding the sunlight peering in through the blinds.

"Don't make me drag you outta bed, missy," I said, trying to sound stern. She mumbled into her pillow words I couldn't quite make out, "What did you say?", I asked curiously.

"I said, your wake up call sucks," she joked, flinging the covers over her head.

"You're gonna make this difficult, aren't you?", I asked, wondering what she'd do if I actually did force her out of bed. She mumbled "whatever" in response to my question, and that's when i got an idea. I climbed to the end of the bed, fastened my prosthetic, and reached over to my iPod near the TV set and switched on the Sex Pistols greatest hits and "Holidays In The Sun" began playing, silently at first. I heard her groaning in the background. Then I put the volume even louder causing a ruckus, and started jumping and dancing on the bed.

I don't want to holiday in the sun
I want to go to the new Belsen
I want to see some history
'Cause now I got a reasonable economy

I kept jumping and jumping hoping she'd catch on that I wasn't stopping until she got out of bed. Next thing I know she flipped the covers off of herself and shot right up and started jumping and dancing with me. I grabbed her hands and started swinging her and leading her in this weird mixture of dance moves that she started to enjoy, I could tell by the gleaming smile on her face. We both started shouting the lyrics and laughing and stumbling on the sheets and pillows under us.

Oh now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
And I'm still waiting
Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
To be waiting

The song finally finished and I hopped down from the bed of chaos and shut off the music. I turned around back to her to see her spread out on the bed like a star fish, chest rising and falling actively. She had the biggest, beaming smile on her face while her eyes were closed in that moment.

"I don't think I've ever.... been this happy.... this quickly after waking up.... Especially when I'm hungover.... Especially when I broke my sobriety streak last night.... You, my friend, are inspiring," she said in between pants, eyes still closed, her short, wavy hair having come out of its elastic and spread over her face and the bed.

"You ready to tackle today?" I wondered. "Of course, just maybe get me two Advils and a gallon of water and I should be good to go. I didn't think I would be, but... this helped," she leaned up, elbows supporting her, "It must be getting annoying how much I've been thanking you, but I can't stop. Thank you, for this." She looked smaller now, almost shy. "No problem," I said, a smile inevitably forming on my own face, "now get your ass up and at 'em we need to be out of here in 45 minutes before traffic starts," I said with gusto.

I went over to the bed where she sat and looked her in the eyes. "You know, you don't have to keep thanking me.... I-I know you appreciate what I do for you, but trust me it's not a bother. Within the last 8 hours, you have become very important to me. Because it's not every day you get to save someone from themselves," I looked her up and down, smiling after I glanced the Sex Pistols t shirt I'd given her to wear, and then I glanced back up at her face, her hair framing her face gorgeously and her left cheek dimple popping out from her contagious smile. "Especially not people as amazing as you are."

She looked at me gleefully, but then her face changed, and I felt her leaning into me. "I probably shouldn't do this," she whispered close to my lips, I felt her words glide past them. "It's definitely not the best idea for my sobriety, but I can't think of a better way to thank you, or a better way that you'd want to be thanked by 'someone as amazing as I am' ," she said, using air quotes.

She leaned in even closer, placing her right hand on the side of my face, and kissed my lips softly and longingly. I didn't want the kiss to end, and I felt her place her left hand on my back pulling me in closer, deepening the kiss. I took over and pushed her chest down so she could lay under me. I kissed her hard and ran my hands through her hair then down her chest and torso.

The voice in my head was telling me to speed it up, there wasn't time for this, but part of me felt like I could kiss her for hours. Just kiss her. I didn't even feel like I needed more. Our kisses slowed down, and I pecked her lips then her forehead and then sat up on the bed, fixing my t shirt and wiping my lips with the back of my hand.

I looked at her and couldn't help but smile, "We should really start getting ready... I'll, uh, go downstairs and make coffee and something to eat and we'll get dressed and we can be out of here... Sound good?", I asked. " Okay, sure, yeah let's, uh, let's do that.", she tried not to smirk but did anyway, putting her palm to her face out of joy and slight embarrassment over what just happened, almost like a crushing schoolgirl. She ran her hand through her hair and tussled it so her waves now parted to one side, and then her face went serious.

"Jesus... I'm gonna have to face her today." I didn't know who she meant at first, then I remembered how we ended up here. She was talking about Meredith.

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We managed to get dressed and eat breakfast and store our coffee in thermos and run out the door on time, but annoyingly, we still ended up in traffic.

"It's never this bad, there must have been an accident or something," I said, impatiently as we sat behind a row of cars at a green light. "I'm gonna have to take a detour before this traffic drives me crazy." I pulled out of my spot in the line of cars down Seton street and took a one way street out toward the bay, taking the bridge instead of the local streets to work. We got there in fifteen minutes, still slightly late but earlier than if we had waited in traffic all that time.

Once I pulled into my usual parking spot for the handicapped, she places her hand on mine and said, "This morning was... a good morning. Maybe we can have more like those sometime soon, ya know when I get more of a handle on my shit and I'm able to spend the night again... you'll wait for me won't you?", the brunette asked with the most beautiful smile. "Of course, you get yourself to meetings and figure out whatever you need to, I won't go anywhere," I said, reassuringly. I gave her one last lingering kiss on the lips before we would probably have to be on a hiatus of not-kissing while she dealt with all she needed to. We got out of the car and went our separate ways into work, her through the trauma wing, and I through the pediatrics wing. I couldn't help but look back at her as I walked away, and just as I did, I saw her take a glance back at me, too.

This girl was going to change me, but I could already feel myself loving it.

As soon as I changed into scrubs and put on my lab coat I caught up with Dr. Russo on one of our patient's crash C-section that he had to perform without me overnight. After that I stopped Alex on his way to the bathroom.

"Alex! Hey! Good morning, how's everything, how'd you sleep?", I asked more chipper than normal, I guess. "Uh, swell, I guess. Why are you so happy?", Alex asked in his usual grumpy tone. "Oh, I don't know I guess I just had a, uh, good rest and I don't know it feels like it's gonna be a good day, don't you think?", I asked, right as Alex received a page from the ER, a 911.

"Sorry, Robbins, gotta go I'll catch up with you later!", Alex noted as he jogged to the stairwell entrance. I shrugged it off and proceeded to the nurses desk to receive two charts for the babies that were being monitored for me overnight while I was home. As I was looking through the charts I saw Dr. Pierce and Jackson run by and to the stairwell kinda like how Alex did, they must be headed to the ER too. "Well, no one paged me," I said to myself. And I continued on looking through my charts, when suddenly, I got a sick feeling.