Will the stars realign? (Calzona)

Seven

Inspiration taken from 14x23

Arizona POV
It's been another week since leaving New York and the tears from Sofia in the evening have greatly reduced, only twice this week compared to the four nights last week and one of them being Penny coming home shouting at Callie which woke Sofia up. Penny is now only visiting if Sofia asks for her too or if Sofia is in bed, which must be really hard for Callie but it's best for Sofia. As I walk into the hospital I am met by Dr Amelia Shepard, head of Neuro here at Grey Sloan. "How's Sofia?" She asks referring back our daily conversations where I rant about Callie and Penny. "Better, still having some tears and theirs clearly problems between Callie and Penny but Sofia's all I care about" I say heading into the attending lounge. "We both know that's not true" I shoot my head to Amelia wondering why she needed to call me out, "I mean it's not but sure let's go with only caring about Sofia" I nod before changing into scrubs. Not caring that Amelia is stood watching me, we've been sleeping together again for a while, it's the first time since college and she's definitely a gift to women. She coughs as I catch her checking me out "right so, umm" Amelia flusters trying to regain control of her words, "we have a patient, together, umm she actually requested us to do it together" Amelia's eyes widened at the realisation of she said causing me to laugh, "not do it together, um the consult, do the consult together, she asked for us by name" Amelia rambles when she's nervous, it's cute. "Yeah I got it Amelia, consults in work, sex in our own time, let's go" we leave the attending lounge and head to room 1407, Amelia pulls up the chart and laughs sarcastically "We have an old face who wants to see us" she said as we enter the room.

"Hey, less of the old you!". That voice, I knew that voice anywhere. Dr Nicole Herman, the woman who taught me everything there is there is to know about fetal surgery. I stood in shock, why was she back? Was it her tumour? Or something else? Why did she want me?

"Robbins, Shepherd, look at you, you both look amazing" I look at Amelia confused and I am met with the same look back from her. Both of us not understanding how she can see us. Neither of us said a word, "uhh... you can" I begin to ask as she laughs "no I'm just messing with you, still blind as an earth worm" still neither of us move, awaiting for something to be said for the reason we are here. Both of our pages buzz, 911-pit mass trauma, thank god, I haven't ever felt this awkward. "Nicole, hi, I am so sorry we've got to run, trauma calls but we will be back, so sorry" Amelia grabs my hand and pulls me out of the room with her. She pushes the button for the elevator but still neither of us said a word.

"Why is she here?" I question as we battle through the hustle of the hallways, "I don't know" Amelia seems as clueless as me. "Check up? Follow up?" I whisper as we pass colleagues, "I still don't know, wait you don't know?" I look back at her confused as to why I should know. "No we haven't spoken since she left, not once. I reached out but she never responded so I gave up, I guessed she was pissed with me" which is true, we haven't. I grabbed gloves and an apron before heading to the ambulance bay "I mean I've kinda got a bone to pick with her.." I was soon interrupted by Amelia "really? Today" she asks turning for me to do her apron up. "Can you pick the bone later?", "I guess so". With that several ambulances pull up and we are pulled in different directions.

After finishing up in the pit and not needing to head into surgery myself I decide to head back up to Herman's room. As I arrive I see Dr DeLuca performing a spinal tap, "Dr Robbins" he greets but more to make Nicole aware of my arrival. "Well, what are you waiting for? Are you coming to say hello or not?" She asks, I walk in and stand next to her, 3 years since she walked out of the hospital never to be seen again, didn't return my call or answer my texts and now she shows up here like nothing happened? She was talking but all I could think about was how she walked away at a time I could have done with a friend. DeLuca finished and said he'd be back soon to check in.

"Just you?" She asks as if the silence that filled the room wasn't obvious. "Yeah it's just me". Silence again, "I could have gone elsewhere but, well I wanted to come talk to you" I laugh sarcastically "well that is a switch". Silence again. I think back to how we'd spend many nights in this hospital, laughing and getting up to mischief, stealing sofas and running through the halls and now it was as if we were strangers. "I've heard alot about your cart, could I see it?" I agree and go to get it, "I ordered the drawers according to the severity of the scenario, haemorrhage, sepsis, preeclampsia" I watch as she opens and closes the drawers, feeling for the variety of equipment included within it "this is impressive Robbins, you did go.. you took fetal and ran with it" almost a compliment I guess. "Well you didn't give me much of a choice" her head shot back in my direction, she never did like my backhanded comments, "are you still pouting? I hear pouting" I roll my eyes, how does she do that? "So you've been following my work but you couldn't reach out to tell me that your alright or to see if I'm alright because you were my mentor and you were supposed to be my friend", "you were fine and you are fine" she interrupted making my eyes roll again, "no I wasn't, you just dropped me and moved on, that's unacceptable"  it may have sounded harsh but I've been holding onto this for 3 years. "I didn't, I just didn't know.. how to.. well you saved my life", "Shepherd saved your life" I reminded her. "no, well yes but no what I meant was, after blind school I hit a rough patch, the blindness I could cope with but I was put on this earth to do surgery so I went very, very dark. No pun intended. But I kept hearing about you and your dozens of exit procedures and the acardiac twins and then you saved quads and then I realised, I did it. I downloaded my entire brain into that girl in just a few months and she went out and saved all these babies" I walked around the bed to sit next to her, I was mad but I get it, we all hit rough patches. "thanks I needed to hear you say that" my tone softened. "you made me realise I could teach and it could still matter. I could save more babies by creating more Robbins' than I could myself with two working eye balls, you made me see that, and that's what saved my life and I didn't reach out because I didn't know how to thank you sufficiently and I still don't so I'm just not going to say it" I laugh at her attempt at an apology, this was the Herman I remembered. "Now your cart, it needs to be on every delivery floor in the country. I just got a grant from HHS, and while I can't say Thankyou with words, I was thinking... well I want to call it the Robbins-Herman Centre for Women's Health, I will teach fetal surgery and you will perform it, and together we can launch your maternal mortality prevention programme. We can offer fellowships and create many more of you and make this country safe for women and babies again". Wait, what? A centre? Named after the two of us launching my prevention cart?. I stand in shock as the words continue to leave her mouth but I don't know if I fully absorb what she's saying.

"well I was actually going to call it the Herman-Robbins centre but that made us sound like a dude", I stood silent, unable to form any type of sentence. "Arizona, are you still here?" I realised I hadn't said a word, I hadn't even acknowledged that she wanted to name a hospital after me. I needed to say something, anything. "Yeah I'm here" my voice barely a whisper. "Did you hear what I said?" I mean I think I did but I may have also imagined the whole thing ."The Robbins-Herman centre" I repeat, "for women's health" she continued. "Your own medical facility, research programme, we can create a world class fellowship programme" once again, my words fail me. "Is that a no?" I pause to consider, "are you serious?" I ask as something this good is usually too good to be true. "Well the grant is based on being able to achieve the proposal I submitted which entrusted you as my equal partner, without you there is no grant, it's as serious as you want it to be", this is her Thankyou? A whole medical centre named after me? Launching my research that is going to change delivery floors across the country?. "I mean wow I am honoured, of course I'm interested but where is the clinic?" I ask. "The proposal doesn't stipulate, it just says good transport links in a dense inner city location" I take a deep breathe, "ok" am I doing this? I mean I'd be giving up being chief at one of the best hospitals in the country but what have I really got to lose? "Ok?" She questioned, "I'm in" .