The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona - Volume II

Semper Fi Part II

Callie's POV:

Our Fall season flew by as the days seemed to disappear like the leaves on the trees were disappearing too. After surviving the windstorm that crippled the city for weeks as things got cleaned up or fixed, our lives had gone back to normal. 

Arizona's Dad and Chip had managed to clear our driveway enough to make it passable again in one day. Chip had even boarded up the treehouse roof until we could get the builder to come out and restore it to its former glory, 3 weeks after the storm.

In the meantime, another Halloween had come and gone. Sophia was getting older, but still wanted a costume and to go trick or treating around the neighborhood. We, of course, dressed Madelyn up as an adorable pumpkin for her 1st Halloween. I joked with Arizona that we should dress as farmers to go along with Maddy's costume. While she loved the idea, Arizona wasn't into getting dressed up for the holiday. The most she does is to wear a cute pumpkin pin on her lab coat lapel if it's a work day.

I was scrubbing out of a routine hip replacement when I realized Thanksgiving was only a few days away. Arizona and I had offered to host Thanksgiving at our house that year, but I was already starting to regret that offer as I thought about all the work it was going to require both before and after the event. Thankfully we had arranged to work half days on Wednesday, and had taken the rest of the week off to spend time with our girls. Sophia was on a weeklong break from school, so we already had plans for the upcoming weekend as a family.

As I was finishing up, I heard someone giggle and say, "Are you trying to scrub down to your dermis layer or have you just run out of conventional ways to power-exfoliate your hands?" I knew that voice and laugh anywhere, it was Teddy.

I had to laugh too, because in the process of thinking about everything I needed to do that week, I had started aggressively and unknowingly scrubbing my hands. My anxious energy had manifested itself in to me shedding skin cells I didn't need to while I got cleaned up. I decided to stop washing my hands at that point, when I realized that I'd already done my process twice and then some.

"Apparently, I'm trying to get rid of at least a few layers of my skin! I guess I just got sidetracked thinking about everything we need to do for Thanksgiving. I was on autopilot just now as I was making plans. You're still coming over, right?"

Teddy laughed and said, "Entertaining is never easy so I can understand how you got preoccupied with your thoughts. Let's face it, scrubbing out is one of the most mindless things we do as surgeons. It's usually the moment I tune out for a bit too and figure out my schedule or dinner ideas. And yes, I'm still coming. Your wife already cornered me this morning and I gave her my RSVP. I'm bringing roasted carrots and a bourbon sweet potato pie. The pie is a family recipe from my great, great grandmother."

"Wow, Teddy, those will be lovely editions to all the food. I'm especially excited to try a slice of your family's pie. Oddly enough, I've never had sweet potato pie before, but love sweet potatoes."

"The bourbon I need for the pie isn't bad either, if I say so myself, and probably why I like making the recipe so much. The bourbon I don't use is also helpful in my process as I cook. I'd offer to bring the leftovers, but odds are there won't be much leftover."

We both laughed for a few moments while I dried my hands. "Sounds like something I would do myself if I was cooking with alcohol too. I'm glad you can make it, everyone will be excited to see you, especially Sophia. Her class is studying the human body right now and she just finished the section regarding the heart and lungs. She suddenly has lots to talk about and has been enjoying quizzing Arizona and myself. We think it's wonderful, but are also worried she may stump us one of these days!"