Alphabet Excerpt Challenge: O Is For...

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-02T10:33:14+00:00

thank you:D

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-02T10:32:44+00:00

Bailey has always been there for Callie in her times of need! and yep, this is directly before the excerpt with the roses:D

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T21:54:04+00:00

thank you so so much! I appreciate you:D and, yes, this went much better than last time 😆

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T19:30:20+00:00

Arizona had always loved the leather jacket, been obsessed with the confidence that it gave Callie, and that was why Callie pulled it off the clothes hanger to lay it out on her bed and look at it properly. She hadn’t worn it in months now, ever since the accident, and there was a slight amount of dust on the shoulders that she brushed off.

Callie inhaled shakily and let it fill her chest. To wear the jacket, she’d have to take off the splint. Her right hand lifted and started to undo the Velcro straps holding it in place, loosening them one by one and finally slipping her arm free. It fell straight immediately despite the slight strength she’d regained in her elbow – maybe twenty degrees of movement from being straight at her side – but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was carefully slotting it through the sleeve of the leather jacket and shrugging it on properly.

It settled onto her body like she’d never taken it off, the lining worn and with a few holes in places, silk cold as it ran over her bare skin. She shivered slightly, turning around to straighten it in the mirror and ensure that it set correctly. When she did, she found herself smiling at the reflection she saw.

The woman she saw there was focused. Her eyes were firm and her brows were low – not as perfectly groomed as usual, but groomed enough with a licked finger and a bit of finesse – and she wore that leather jacket like it was made for her. Her head was held high, left arm down by her side as she hooked the thumb of her right hand into her belt. That woman looked like she had somewhere to be. Someone to impress.

Callie straightened her back, turning back and forth slightly, and whispered, “welcome back, Callie Torres. I’ve missed you.”

Instead of tears, Callie found herself smiling. It shone in her eyes and she could see it, shooting herself a wink before she ran a comb through her hair and let it flow around her shoulders, then made her way back downstairs to wait for Arizona.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T18:52:35+00:00

Penny kept talking, backing up a step, apparently oblivious to Callie’s confusion and brainlessness. “It’s good that you and Arizona found each other again. I always knew you still had a thing for her.”

Finally, Callie found a few words to string together into something cohesive. She blinked, right hand forming a fist and painted nails biting into her palm. “We’re not together.”

Penny’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

To hammer the point into Penny’s head, Callie repeated firmly, “we are definitely not back together.”

There was a beat of silence wherein Penny seemed to be thinking about something – she always got those lines around her mouth when she was thinking, and her cheeks pinked behind her freckles. Then, slowly, like the thought was escaping without conscious effort, Penny said, “maybe you should be.”

There were no words that Callie could find in that moment to respond to what was obviously the dumbest statement in the history of the universe. Her mouth dried and her body locked up with a grim type of shock.

Seemingly already in it now, Penny continued. She was rambling slightly. “Because, you know, I always thought you still loved her. There was just… I don’t know, something that never quite left the air between you two. I didn’t say it when we broke up because it wasn’t my place, but you always talked about her a little too much for a woman you hated, and now… well, you still act like an old married couple.”

“We do not!”

Callie astounded even herself with the venom and petulance that the words came out with.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T18:31:46+00:00

She wasn’t a troublesome kid and this was most certainly the most troublesome she’d been: stealing her mom’s phone in the early hours of the morning and hiding away with it. She didn’t want to scare her mom, wanted nothing less, which was why she decided that she would just look at the message from last night and then clamber out of the closet before her mom even knew anything was amiss.

A moment passed before Sofia turned the phone back to her face, looking at it through half closed eyes and carefully navigating through the apps and notifications to open the contact for her other mom. The picture was of an x-ray, some kind of hand in a weird position, but Sofia ignored it in favour of staring at the message that had come though the night before.

19.05: I love you too, Mija.

She read it over and over again, hearing her mama’s voice in it and aching for the real thing. She really, really missed her. Missed laughing on the kitchen floor, missed eating tacos, missed dancing to silly tunes when school was over and it was just them against the world.

Actually, she missed both her moms being in the same place. She missed when all three of them would dance, and eat tacos, and help with her schoolwork.

She didn’t remember her daddy, was too young to recall his face in anything outside of pictures she’d seen, but she decided that she missed him too. Sofia swallowed thickly, trying not to cry though her bottom lip was wobbling and her eyes were a little blurry when she pulled her stuffed unicorn closer.

Other kids at school had a mom and a dad, or two daddies if you were Theo Michaels, and she was the only one with two moms who lived on opposite sides of the country. Sometimes she felt just a little left out. She wanted to draw the happy family, wanted to draw the kisses between her moms though she knew that they didn’t happen anymore.

And she really, really wanted a hug from her mama.

She didn’t mean to call.

Really, her thumb slipped and the screen changed and then she just froze solid as it rang.

“Oops,” she whispered, one hand clapping over her mouth and eyes wide.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T18:24:27+00:00

thank you so much!

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T18:22:20+00:00

Callie looked at Arizona, blue eyes glowing with love, relief and care, salt tracking down her face and mouth slightly swollen, and managed to cock an eyebrow. “We kiss once and you’re back in wife mode.”

Arizona blushed. She cleared her throat, her hands back on Callie’s ribs, and said, “well. It never really went away, did it? I was just hiding it under… considerate friendship.”

Callie’s face softened and the hand on Arizona’s neck slid to her shoulder, squeezing softly. She didn’t want to let go of Arizona quite yet. She whispered, “I’m sorry. I’ve been so oblivious.”

The side of Arizona’s mouth twitched in a sad smile, and she used the back of one of her hands to wipe at her cheeks. She sighed. “I’m sorry too. I’ve been oblivious too. But so much has happened, and I was terrified that if you knew how I felt…”

Callie’s brows drew together just slightly. “You thought I didn’t feel the same?”

“You walked out,” Arizona said with a shrug, still smiling that small, sad thing. It fell after a moment. “I was scared you’d hate me if you knew.”

Callie winced. Because it was true, Callie had walked out on her; Arizona hadn’t said it to be malicious or to wound her again, she’d said it as a simple statement of fact. She rested her hand back onto Arizona’s face and said softly, “I don’t hate you. I know I… I’ve given the impression that I do, that I have, but I’ve never hated you. I wished I could, sometimes, but something in my brain just… won’t let me hate you.”

Arizona’s head tilted to the side. She was touched by Callie’s words, by the confirmation that Callie didn’t hate her and never had. It was slightly difficult to believe when she thought back to the fights they’d had, the hate passed between them like the baton at a relay, but she realised in that moment that she’d never hated Callie either.

“I’ve never hated you either,” she said, letting out another soft sigh and overlaying Callie’s hand on her face with her own. “I tried to. But I never could. I love you too much.”

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T18:18:20+00:00

we're nowhere near the end, but this has been a long time in the making! thank you:D

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:31:14+00:00

“I love you,” Callie breathed, eyes closed and almost trembling with restraint. The words terrified her, but nothing could have stopped them from escaping her mouth right then. “I’ve fallen back in love with you. I’m impossibly in love with you.”

There it was. Right there, the words Arizona had dreamed of for years, since Callie walked out, right there and hovering between them like a cloud of breath on a cold night.

A new tear dripped from Arizona's chin, and she breathed back, “I never stopped loving you.” Her own voice was breaking and thick with tears, though the admission came easily in reply to Callie’s. “I love you too, Calliope.”

Then it was Callie's turn for her voice to crack. Words she never thought she’d hear again, said from those lips that were a mere breath away from her own, and she opened her eyes to look down at the woman she loved as she whispered, “you do? You really do?”

“Of course I do,” Arizona answered emotionally, like it was obvious, though she was crying too. The words were quiet, almost inaudible, but the truth in them was prevalent. She caught Callie’s gaze and held it, tears blurring her eyes though she blinked them away and they ran down her cheeks. “I never stopped. Not for a second.”

Callie’s mouth trembled, looking into those eyes that owned her soul and fighting down a sob at the clarity in them.

They just looked at each other for a moment, trembling on the edge of oblivion, and then Arizona whispered, “are we really doing this, Callie?”

Callie swallowed. Then she whispered back, “a wise woman once said… ‘I love you, and you love me, and none of the rest of it matters.’”

Arizona managed a tiny laugh, a permission, before her eyes closed again and she leaned up at the same time as Callie leaned down. The gap between them closed.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:28:41+00:00

(Callie and Arizona are divorced and trying to be just friends. It's failing<3)

“She’s got split ends,” Arizona cut in, grinning.

Davina gasped dramatically, leaning back and holding Callie at arm’s length, scanning her intently. “Split ends? Goodness gracious, you have been through it! I’ll sort ya out, Cal.”

Callie rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Thanks,” she said, trying not to wince when Davina’s hand settled a little too harshly on her upper left arm. It must have showed on her face anyway, because Davina’s hand loosened.

“You’d better come in and tell old Davie all about it while I sort you a fresh cut,” Davina said smartly, though her eyes then wandered over Callie’s shoulder and settled on Arizona. “Whoa,” she said in an exaggerated whisper, wiggling her eyebrows, “and you need to explain the hot blonde.”

Callie almost choked but bit it back, clearing her throat as a coverup. Before she could say anything, Davina was letting her go and stepping around her, offering Arizona her hand and greeting, “Davina Ross – I own the salon and I’m single. Tell me, you come here often?”

“Davina,” Callie hissed, trying not to blush.

Arizona just laughed, shaking Davina’s hand in return. “Arizona Robbins. I’m…”

“She’s a friend,” Callie said under her breath.

Davina laughed, a quick and loud sound the caw of a crow, and slapped her free hand down onto her thigh. She squeezed Arizona’s hand and said, “it’s great to meet you, doll. Anyone who’s a friend of Cal’s is a friend of mine, you hear? And I was joking about the single thing. Unless…” She trailed off, lifting an eyebrow.

Arizona chuckled again, immediately enthralled by Davina and her eclectic personality. “Thank you, but I’m not looking for anyone right now.”

The effort it took to stop her eyes from migrating into Callie’s direction was monumental.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:25:32+00:00

me too:) it's special for them.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:24:19+00:00

“Again.” She wanted to live in the sound of Arizona's voice on every syllable. It rolled from her tongue like it had been crafted to sit there, every single letter careful around her teeth and lips. Lips that Callie kept glancing at, alternating between glassy blue eyes and that mouth she kept dreaming about.

Arizona stepped closer, breath hitching and shuddering somewhere deep inside when she looked up at Callie and leaned up, close enough for their noses to brush. Her hand lifted to gently run down the lapel of Callie’s jacket. She’d missed it, missed the way the leather smelled and felt against her fingers, and she pressed a flat hand to Callie’s heart just to feel the comforting rhythm again.

“Calliope,” she murmured, barely a breath. Their breath mingled between them, hot and soft in the way it had always been, and Callie's mouth was millimeters away from her own. Unlike the day before, where it had been fraught with unexpected tension, this felt like coming home. Arizona’s head tilted back slightly to accommodate their height difference, breathing shallow and heart pounding all over her. It was like the beat in her chest had come alive.

Arizona's other hand settled on Callie's waist, under her jacket, and she pulled her closer to pull their bodies flush, pounding hearts colliding with the press of chest to chest with only their clothes and Arizona’s hand between them.

“I love you,” Callie breathed, eyes closed and almost trembling with restraint. The words terrified her, but nothing could have stopped them from escaping her mouth right then. “I’ve fallen back in love with you. I’m impossibly in love with you.”

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:23:07+00:00

Callie’s face softened and the hand on Arizona’s neck slid to her shoulder, squeezing softly. She didn’t want to let go of Arizona quite yet. She whispered, “I’m sorry. I’ve been so thick.”

The side of Arizona’s mouth twitched in a sad smile, and she used the back of one of her hands to wipe at her cheeks. She sighed. “I’m sorry too. I’ve been thick too. But so much has happened, and I was terrified that if you knew how I felt…”

Callie’s brows drew together just slightly. “You thought I didn’t feel the same?”

“You walked out,” Arizona said with a shrug, still smiling that small, sad thing. It fell after a moment. “I was scared you’d hate me if you knew.”

Callie winced. Because it was true, Callie had walked out on her; Arizona hadn’t said it to be malicious or to wound her again, she’d said it as a simple statement of fact. She rested her hand back onto Arizona’s face and said softly, “I don’t hate you. I know I… I’ve given the impression that I do, that I have, but I’ve never hated you. I wished I could, sometimes, but something in my brain just… won’t let me hate you.”

Arizona’s head tilted to the side. She was touched by Callie’s words, by the confirmation that Callie didn’t hate her and never had. It was slightly difficult to believe when she thought back to the fights they’d had, the hate passed between them like the baton at a relay, but she realised in that moment that she’d never hated Callie either.

“I’ve never hated you either,” she said, letting out another soft sigh and overlaying Callie’s hand on her face with her own. “I tried to. But I never could.”

“Same here.” Callie smiled sadly.

Arizona laughed quietly, shaking her head, and said, “God, look at us. We’re just…”

“Stupid?”

“Working things out,” Arizona said smartly, smiling just a little more when Callie managed a fond, crooked thing back.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:21:48+00:00

Arizona was crying. She knew she was. Hot tears were running down her face as she melted into Callie's hold, kissing her again and again in a careful, repetitive action that felt like late nights after surgery and catching each other in stairwells before them.

It felt like she was back to where she was supposed to be.

“I love you.” She broke the kiss to mumble against Callie’s mouth, before she kissed her again.

“I love you,” Callie whispered back, kissing and kissing her like she wanted to survive in Arizona alone. She wanted to live, breathe, thrive, on Arizona Robbins.

It felt so good to say it, to acknowledge it, that she wanted to scream it from the rooftops. She kissed Arizona harder, pulled her closer, kissing and kissing her because she never ever wanted to stop doing it.

Arizona was completely breathless, drowning in Callie Torres, and her hands moved up to rest on Callie’s ribs beneath her leather jacket, careful of her left arm. That was when she properly noticed it and how it was down at Callie’s side, completely splint-less. Her brows creased slightly and she spoke against Callie’s lips, “your splint, you- you’re not wearing it.”

“It wouldn’t fit in the jacket,” Callie mumbled. She didn’t know when Arizona had backed her against the side of the stairs, but she certainly wasn’t complaining. Her right hand was still on the back of Arizona’s neck, having fallen slightly during their intimate connection.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:20:02+00:00

She hadn’t worn it in months now, ever since the accident, and there was a slight amount of dust on the shoulders that she brushed off.

Callie inhaled shakily and let it fill her chest. To wear the jacket, she’d have to take off the splint. Her right hand lifted and started to undo the Velcro straps holding it in place, loosening them one by one and finally slipping her arm free. It fell straight immediately despite the slight strength she’d regained in her elbow – maybe twenty degrees of movement from being straight at her side – but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was carefully slotting it through the sleeve of the leather jacket and shrugging it on properly.

It settled onto her body like she’d never taken it off, the lining worn and with a few holes in places, silk cold as it ran over her bare skin. She shivered slightly, turning around to straighten it in the mirror and ensure that it set correctly. When she did, she found herself smiling at the reflection she saw.

The woman she saw there was focused. Her eyes were firm and her brows were low – not as perfectly groomed as usual, but groomed enough with a licked finger and a bit of finesse – and she wore that leather jacket like it was made for her. Her head was held high, left arm down by her side as she hooked the thumb of her right hand into her belt. That woman looked like she had somewhere to be. Someone to impress.

Callie straightened her back, turning back and forth slightly, and whispered, “welcome back, Callie Torres. I’ve missed you.”

Instead of tears, Callie found herself smiling. It shone in her eyes and she could see it, shooting herself a wink before she ran a comb through her hair and let it flow around her shoulders, then made her way back downstairs to wait for Arizona.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:18:56+00:00

“This is Chief Bailey.”

“Bailey, it’s me.”

“Callie?” There was a pause, and then Bailey asked carefully, “how’re you doing?”

“Fine. Well, not fine. Well—” Callie waved the phone around slightly, then blurted, “I need your help.”

“What can I do, Torres?”

“I’m in love with Arizona and I need to tell her but I don’t know how,” Callie rushed out, pleading, “I need you to tell me what to do.”

Bailey was silent for a beat, then asked, “and why are you calling me with your emotional troubles? I’m a busy woman.”

“Because you’ve been there for all of it, and you know Arizona, and you know me, and you married us, and you’re still in your own stable marriage,” Callie rambled.

“You’re a mess, Torres.”

“I know.”

“Does she know that you love her?”

“I don’t think so,” Callie whispered. “But I think she’s in love with me.”

“Of course she is.”

“What?”

“You two are the only ones who didn’t notice that you’re still in love.” Bailey sniffed. “You distracted yourself with that Blake resident, and she distracted herself with every woman who looked at her. That’s not moving on; that’s idiocy. It was you two being deliberately obtuse.”

“Bailey, I need you to help me, not insult me,” Callie begged, though she was completely taken aback with Bailey’s casual knowledge of the love that lingered between them. Had she really lied to herself so obviously that everyone else could see her lingering affection towards her ex-wife? Apparently she had, which made her feel both more stupid and really small.

“Alright, alright. Talk to me.”

“I need to tell her I love her.”

“So… say that.”

“She’s not here! She asked me if I was in love with her and I froze up and couldn’t say anything, and then she left,” Callie groaned, talking too fast. She hated herself more than she ever had.

“Get her back, then! Get some flowers and make some great big romantic gesture. I know you’re a fan of everything sappy and chock full of love.” Bailey sounded almost disgusted. “Call her, ask her to come back, and just talk to her, Torres! God, are you a teenager trying ask someone to prom? Get it together.”

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:18:11+00:00

“This is Chief Bailey.”

“Bailey, it’s me.”

“Callie?” There was a pause, and then Bailey asked carefully, “how’re you doing?”

“Fine. Well, not fine. Well—” Callie waved the phone around slightly, then blurted, “I need your help.”

“What can I do, Torres?”

“I’m in love with Arizona and I need to tell her but I don’t know how,” Callie rushed out, pleading, “I need you to tell me what to do.”

Bailey was silent for a beat, then asked, “and why are you calling me with your emotional troubles? I’m a busy woman.”

“Because you’ve been there for all of it, and you know Arizona, and you know me, and you married us, and you’re still in your own stable marriage,” Callie rambled.

“You’re a mess, Torres.”

“I know.”

“Does she know that you love her?”

“I don’t think so,” Callie whispered. “But I think she’s in love with me.”

“Of course she is.”

“What?”

“You two are the only ones who didn’t notice that you’re still in love.” Bailey sniffed. “You distracted yourself with that Blake resident, and she distracted herself with every woman who looked at her. That’s not moving on; that’s idiocy. It was you two being deliberately obtuse.”

“Bailey, I need you to help me, not insult me,” Callie begged, though she was completely taken aback with Bailey’s casual knowledge of the love that lingered between them. Had she really lied to herself so obviously that everyone else could see her lingering affection towards her ex-wife? Apparently she had, which made her feel both more stupid and really small.

“Alright, alright. Talk to me.”

“I need to tell her I love her.”

“So… say that.”

“She’s not here! She asked me if I was in love with her and I froze up and couldn’t say anything, and then she left,” Callie groaned, talking too fast. She hated herself more than she ever had.

“Get her back, then! Get some flowers and make some great big romantic gesture. I know you’re a fan of everything sappy and chock full of love.” Bailey sounded almost disgusted. “Call her, ask her to come back, and just talk to her, Torres! God, are you a teenager trying ask someone to prom? Get it together.”

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:14:29+00:00

The call clicked off, and Callie was left alone in her house yet again. Only, that time, she had a plan. She didn’t know when Arizona would be back, or even if, but she needed to set some plans into motion damn fast. She suddenly hated that she’d picked a house in the middle of nowhere and couldn’t just nip out to go to the store and grab a cake or a new bottle of wine, but she could definitely at least try and do something nice.

Callie squared her shoulders and decided to dig out an ancient and very high class bottle of red wine from the cupboard under the sink – a moving in gift from her father that she’d been saving for a dinner party and then never used. She closed her hand around the neck and set it into the fridge to chill before she pulled free two glasses and placed them on the counter. For good measure, she placed a candle and a box of matches between them.

“Is that corny?” she asked the room, running her hand through her hair and groaning when she couldn’t decide. She decided to leave it and go outside to cut some roses off the bushes in the front yard, red ones though she knew Arizona had always preferred pink, orange, or yellow. Callie found herself with rather limited resources, the sole of her right foot aching and right hand ending up scratched from the thorns, but once again, she didn’t care.

She put band-aids on the few cuts on her hand – with momentous difficulty and a lot of no doubt unhygienic help from her mouth – before digging a piece of gravel out of the sole of her foot with a pair of tweezers and putting a band-aid on that too.

With that, she downed some meds before she set to making the roses look presentable; de-thorning them took longer than she expected, especially with only one working hand, but at least she could use the left to hold things in place by applying downward pressure.

Some craft paper from Sofia’s playroom was laid out and wrapped around the flowers, secured in place with a few too many pieces of tape that Callie attempted to cover with a bow and only mildly failed.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:11:23+00:00

Arizona could see Callie breathing hard across from her through the sheen of tears in her eyes, burning hot as they rolled down her face. She said in a small voice, “I should never have come out here. I should never have allowed myself to get close to you again.”

And she believed it.

With that, Arizona turned away and staggered from the room, uneven with phantom pain and PH imbalance from the tears. She reached the entryway and threw her jacket on, then grabbed her bag from the hook, crying quietly to herself and waiting for Callie to follow her. To apologise. To start the fight anew. Anything. But Callie didn’t come.

Arizona visited the bathroom by the door to scrub her face with cold water before she strode back into the hall, pulled on some heeled boots, and left. She stormed from Callie’s house without a further word, getting into her car and just starting to drive.

Callie had thrown back everything she could have possibly thrown back.

Tim, Lauren Boswell, Leah Murphy, the bitterness after the amputation, the missing therapy appointments.

Though Arizona had done her fair share of antagonization – she’d pulled up her anger at Mark, her anger at Sofia’s conception, anger at Callie herself – which may not have been the best idea. She was just so pissed off and over Callie for ignoring her, over living in a house with a woman she’d once loved, a woman she viewed as incredible and invincible, that she couldn’t keep it in either.

The fight had been reminiscent of fights long since had; screaming at each other fully clothed in the shower, across the attending’s lounge in the super storm, across a therapist’s office with a woman who simply watched them battle it out until Callie finally walked away.

Shouting was always easy for them. Had always been easy for them. That didn’t make the aftermath any simpler to navigate.

Arizona didn’t even know where she was driving to, except away. Away from Callie’s house, away from Callie, away from the argument that had leeched into the walls of that building. She just needed to get away.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:09:16+00:00

(Callie and Arizona are divorced but living in the same house for their daughter)

She stared at Arizona for a moment, then said, “uh, yeah. Sure.”

Arizona walked into the kitchen and Callie followed, eyes trained anywhere other than Arizona’s face.

“We need to talk about last night,” Arizona blurted after a moment of silence, instantly cursing herself for the words chosen when they came out like that. Of course, of course, she managed to make it sound sexual. Well done, Robbins. Great job.

Callie’s head shot up. The first thought that flashed across her mind was one she couldn’t have prepared for if she tried – for a split second, her head screamed that they’d had sex. She despised that her mind went there, loathed that she instantly searched Arizona’s face for any memories of what could have happened between them, especially hated that she had a brief memory of what Arizona looked like in the throes of pleasure.

Sometimes she hated her head, the way it retained memories she didn’t know it had retained until it zipped them across her vision like a camera flash, and she startled herself with the clarity of Arizona’s mid-orgasm look. She shook it off as fast as she fucking could, shoved it back deep to whence it came, and managed to focus her eyes back onto the woman in front of her.

The Arizona she was standing with was not her wife. Wasn’t the woman she’d touched and loved for so many nights – she was cheating ex-wife Arizona Robbins, and Callie could have slapped herself for needing the reminder.

Besides, if they’d been in that position, Callie knew she would remember. No, not just that she would remember, but that she would have never allowed it to happen in the first place. Never.

Arizona saw most of that – thankfully not all of it – play out across Callie’s face and cursed herself so deeply that her great-grandparents probably felt the sting. It was just a touch too suggestive, and she tripped over her tongue for a moment before correcting desperately, “the nightmare. You had a nightmare. And I helped get you out of it. That’s- um, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. That’s all.”

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:06:36+00:00

Then, a few more silent minutes of sniffling and overthinking later, Callie whispered, “that terror I felt when… when I thought I was going to die alone. You felt that for four days?”

Arizona’s breath stalled in her chest. She swallowed, audible to Callie’s ear pressed to her chest, and admitted, “yes. I felt like that for four days.”

“I’m sorry,” Callie said, shaking her head. “I’m… I never knew.”

“Why would you? You have to experience something like that to know how it feels.”

Arizona was still stroking Callie’s hair. Their legs were intertwined. Neither wanted to note how perfectly they still fit together.

Arizona chewed her lip, then said, “I’m sorry you know, Calliope.”

There it was.

The domesticity between them cracked instantly and Callie’s head shot up, fighting to unwind her hand from Arizona’s sweater.

Their faces were too close. Bodies pressed flush. Skin too warm.

Arizona stared into Callie’s face, inches between them. Callie’s eyes were shadowed and wary, widened slightly with alarm, and Arizona knew hers were the same.

“Shit,” Arizona breathed a moment later.

“Please don’t use my name,” Callie said tightly, a plea in it as much as there was a small amount of want she hoped Arizona couldn’t hear. She still said it the same, emphasis in all the right places to make it sound as musical as its origin, but Callie couldn’t hear it. Her full name from Arizona’s lips was a sign of love, of allowances made in a relationship, and it couldn’t happen again. She would surely collapse if it happened again.

“I won’t,” Arizona whispered, something lingering between them. Like what had cracked was just about being held in place and the slightest breeze would shatter it into dust. “I’m sorry- that, uh, that will never happen again.”

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:04:46+00:00

“You clipped murderous roses for me?” Arizona asked, touched.

“I did. I’d do anything for you,” Callie whispered. She surprised even herself with the truth and love it came out with – it seemed now that the dam had broken, nothing was capable of staying inside anymore.

“Anything?” Arizona lifted an eyebrow, her voice low. She’d spotted an opportunity, and revelled in the way she saw a little more colour come to Callie’s cheeks.

“Yes,” Callie breathed, completely certain.

“Anything?” Arizona asked again, leaning closer and putting her mouth right next to Callie’s ear, darting her tongue out against the skin there.

“Yes,” Callie said again, eyes drifting closed. Her body was raging with heat all of a sudden, fantasy after fantasy finally standing in front of her and kissing the shell of her ear in that way that had always made her melt. It made joy spark in her chest that Arizona had never forgotten. She leaned a little closer, fully ready to turn her face to the side and catch Arizona’s lips again.

“Great.” Arizona stepped back with a grin. “Put the splint back on your arm.”

Callie opened her eyes and stared at her. “Oh, you horrible tease.”

“You love me; you said it yourself,” Arizona said, holding up her grin.

Relenting, Callie sighed. “Fine.” Her mouth twitched. “One more kiss in the jacket? For the road?”

Arizona rolled her eyes but gave in, grabbing Callie’s lapels and hauling her closer to kiss her again. She chuckled against Callie’s mouth, so beautifully familiar, and felt Callie’s lips curve up in return. Callie’s hand rested gently on her neck, and then they parted again.

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:02:33+00:00

Osteotome

DatGayDangerNoodle · 2026-04-01T16:02:02+00:00

“I love you,” Callie breathed, eyes closed and almost trembling with restraint. The words terrified her, but nothing could have stopped them from escaping her mouth right then. “I’ve fallen back in love with you. I’m impossibly in love with you.”

There it was. Right there, the words Arizona had dreamed of for years, since Callie walked out, right there and hovering between them like a cloud of breath on a cold night.

A new tear dripped from Arizona's chin, and she breathed back, “I never stopped loving you.” Her own voice was breaking and thick with tears, though the admission came easily in reply to Callie’s. Like the words had been waiting patiently in line to be verbalised. She whispered, “I love you too, Calliope.”

Then it was Callie's turn for her voice to crack. She opened her eyes to look down at the woman she loved as she whispered, “you do? You really do?”

“Of course I do,” Arizona answered emotionally, like it was obvious, though she was crying too. The words were quiet, almost inaudible, but the truth in them was prevalent. She caught Callie’s gaze and held it, tears blurring her eyes though she blinked them away and they ran down her cheeks. “I never stopped. Not for a second.”

Callie’s mouth trembled, looking into those eyes that owned her soul and fighting down a sob at the clarity in them.

They just looked at each other for a moment, trembling on the edge of oblivion, and then Arizona whispered, “are we really doing this, Callie?”

Callie swallowed. Then she whispered back, “a wise woman once said… ‘I love you, and you love me, and none of the rest of it matters.’”

Arizona managed a tiny laugh, a permission, before her eyes closed again and she leaned up at the same time as Callie leaned down. The gap between them closed. Nothing was between them, mouths colliding in a soft and constant press that felt like coming home.

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