Sand Springs

A/U - Arizona leaves her life in New York behind and moves to a small town in Oklahoma. There's a new doctor in town and she isnt planning on opening her heart again in a hurry. Insert one Callie Torres…

Chapter 1

"And Every time I scratch my nails down someone else's back I hope you feel it. Oh can you feeeeeel it. Well I'm hereee, to remind you, of the mess you left when you went away. It's not fair, to remind me, of the cross I bare that you did to me..."

She continued to belt out the lyrics to Alyannis Marrisettes You Oughta Know as she sped towards her destination. As soon as the song had started, the blonde had turned the volume up, finding it rather fitting for the recent shattering of her relationship.

Just over 4 months ago, Arizona Robbins had received a picture message from a colleague at work which had been the catalyst for the massive change in her life. The picture had been of 2 women in an on-call room, their naked bodies covered by only a thin sheet as they slept on the single bed.

The thing was, one of the women had been Arizona's girlfriend of 4 years. To say her world had come crashing down around her would be somewhat of an understatement. How could Julie have done this to her? Confronting her cheating girlfriend she had learned that it hadn't been just a one off either. The affair had been going on for months behind the blondes back and what made it even worse was that people in the hospital they both worked at knew about it. Most just didn't have the heart to tell the perky general surgeon what they knew.

Julie, her now ex had tried for weeks to get Arizona to forgive her but the blonde wasn't interested. She didn't believe in second chances. Not over something like this. She'd packed up her things and moved out of their apartment a few days later. For the next few months she rented an apartment and had mulled over what her next move would be. She felt she couldn't or perhaps didn't want to be in New York anymore. She'd had her job at New York Presbytarian Hospital - the best hospital in the state - for the last 6 years. It's where she'd met Julie in the first place when she had gotten the attending role there. All of her friends were mutual friends which just made her feel like there was no one she could completely confide in. No one that was just on her side. Her family lived in Missouri so it wasn't like she had them for support during the lowest moment of her life.

She needed a change and this is exactly why she had handed in her notice, packed up her stuff and was headed across the country. She'd applied for a job in a small town called Sand Springs in Oklahoma. The town needed a new doctor and after a Skype interview with a woman called Miranda Bailey, she had been offered the job by the end of interview. The woman had been sceptical ofcourse as to why a general surgeon in one of the best hospitals in the country would want to leave the big city behind and move to a small town, but Arizona had assured her she was still a Missouri girl at heart and had never really felt at home in New York.

It was true. Some would say she was living the dream and for a time she thought she was. In her heart though, she missed the easy going, country life like on her parents farm back in her home state. Moving to Oklahoma she'd also be a hell of lot closer to her family so perhaps visiting would be a more regular thing.

She loved what she did and she'd miss the day to day surgeries but she'd still be a doctor. Being the caring person she always had been, she loved problem solving. Getting to the route cause of peoples illnesses and helping them back on the road to recovery. She'd always put everyone and everything ahead of herself but it was only recently she had come to realise, that wasn't always a good thing. After Julie had ripped her heart out and stamped all over it, she intended to look after number 1 from now on. Ofcourse she'd look after the very sick people in her care but in her personal life, she would be a closed book. Opening the pages to her heart would be no easy task. She wouldn't be letting another woman break her heart. She couldn't take it.

"You, you, you oughta know!" She finished, banging her palms against the steering wheel. Her eyes glanced up to look in the rear view mirror. "Isn't that right Coco pops?!"

The dog that was tied up in the trunk of the car was sat down, her chin resting on the top of the back seat with her big brown eyes looking in Arizona's general direction. "Yea. You know the score. Just you and me now kid. We don't need anyone else."

Coco, nicknamed coco pops or more often then not, Pop's, was a dog that she and Julie had gotten together 3 years ago. The cocker-poo was the softest and most intelligent dog anyone could ever ask for and she was totally ruined by her owner.

On days that Arizona and Julie had both had long shifts, they had had dog walkers go over and hang out with Pops so she wasn't alone all day. It was never in dispute who was going to get the dog after the break up. Pops was absolutely Arizona's dog. The 2 of them had been tight from the get go. Not to mention Julie had always been too lazy to go for walks. Even though getting a dog had been her idea in the first place. The blonde couldn't imagine ever being without her little sidekick now.

After Google mapping the small town she was moving to, she had discovered that the empty house she had bought on whim nearly 2 months ago was only a 10 minute walk from where the doctors surgery was. Hopefully she'd be able to pop back throughout the day and see to the dog. Sand Springs had a small population and was a good 25 miles in each direction from the next nearest town so she didn't imagine a swarm of patients would be at the surgery everyday.

As she drove passed a sign saying Welcome to Sand Springs, she put her foot on the brake, slowing down as she entered what was to be her new home town. Within the next minute she was driving passed various stores, most of which seemed to be shut today. It was a Sunday ofcourse so hopefully that was the reason for the quiet atmosphere. She passed a few people as she continued down the road, most of who looked towards her car as she passed. She smiled and offered a wave, some of which returned the favour. She'd always loved small places like this. Everyone was always so friendly. She hoped it wouldn't take her long to be accepted into what she presumed would be a close knit community.

Realising she wasn't exactly sure where she was going, she reached over for her cell which was resting on top of a load of junk she'd piled onto the passenger seat.

"Crap" she breathed as she knocked the phone to the floor. Bending down, she stretched as far as she could and finally grasped the edge of the phone between her thumb and index finger. Straightening back up, she was just in time to see her car was heading straight for a woman on the pedestrian crossing. Her eyes widened in fear as she swerved her car off to the right and though she applied the brakes, her bonnet bumped into the back of another car parked up at the side of the road. Her body jerked forward and before she even thought of anything else her head whipped around to look at the dog. "Are you Ok, buddy?!" The dog ofcourse didn't answer, but she seemed to be alright. Seconds later the blonde realised someone was shouting at her from outside of the car. Turning back around, she came face to face with the woman she had almost ran over moments earlier. Giving herself a few seconds to control her breathing, Arizona unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her door. Her ears were immediately met with some seriously harsh words, some of which weren't even English. "I mean seriously, are you fucking blind?!"

Arizona held up both hands, in surrender. "I am so, so sorry. Are you Ok?"

"Ok? Ok?" The woman shouted, sarcasm dripping from each word. "She asks if I'm ok.." She looked around with her hands in the air. "Yes I'm OK, but have you seen what you've done to my car?"

The blondes eyes widened again. Ofcourse the car she'd gone into belonged to this woman. Of course it did. This was just terrific. What a way to make an entrance into the community. She doubted it would take very long for word to get around the place that the new girl in town had crashed her car already.

"Are you even listening to me?" the woman continued to rant.

"I am, sorry, I just..." She sighed heavily. "It's been a long drive and when I got here I wasn't sure exactly which way to go and when I went to get Google maps up on my cell.."

The other woman tutted her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "So you were using your cell when driving and took your eyes off the road?! So fucking careless.."

Arizona knew she was in the wrong. She had taken her eyes off the road and if she'd been stretching for her phone for a few seconds longer, she could have quite easily ran this woman over. "Look, I know I'm in the wrong. I can't apologise enough. I have insurance so things will get patched up no problem. I think it's just a little knock to both vehicles."

"A little knock? You've taken out my back lights.." The woman really wasn't letting up. As angry as the woman was however, it didn't hide the fact she was absolutely stunning. Having finally gotten over the shock of the initial incident, Arizona had now taken a moment to really look at the woman she almost knocked down. Big brown eyes with full lips and flawless caramel skin. As the woman continued to talk, blue eyes couldn't tear away from the full lips. She saw the movement but what was being said, She had no idea. Finally, Moving her eyes to look up into brown eyes, she realised the woman had stopped talking and was looking at her with furrowed eye brows, hands on her hips as she studied the blonde.

Crap, she must have looked ridiculous just standing staring at the woman, blatantly ignoring every word she'd said. Not ignoring she thought, just mesmerized. Stop it she told herself. No more women! Shaking her thoughts she once again apologised. "Look, let's swap details and hopefully get this sorted quickly. Is there a garage in town?"

The Latina woman exhaled loudly, the tension and anger visibly leaving her body. "Yea, Karev's is just down the road on the left" she said, her hand coming up and pointing to a place further through town.

"Ok, great. Hopefully they can get us seen to super quick" she said, trying to sound as perky and optimistic as she could.

"Are you visiting someone or passing through?"

"Neither actually. I just moved here from New York." The blonde held out her hand. "Let me introduce myself properly, I'm Arizona Robbins, the new doctor in town."

The Latina narrowed her eyes at the blonde, her eyes drifting down to the offered hand. After a few moments she accepted the hand in her own. "Callie Torres."

Arizona smiled brightly back. "Well, Callie Torres, it's great to meet you. Although.." She looked behind her at their vehicles. "..I'm sorry for the big entrance. It's totally not how I imagined my first day in Sand Springs."

"No, I can't imagine it is." The dark woman moved toward her own car, unlocking and opening the door, she leant in, giving Arizona more than an eyeful of her behind.

"Oh sweet jesus" the blonde whispered to herself.

The Latina backed out of the car and turned to the blonde. "Did you say something?"

"What? Hmm, No nothing.."

With a final glance, Callie leant against the side of her car and began to write her details onto a pad that she'd retrieved from the glove compartment. Tearing the paper from her pad, she turned and handed it to the blonde. "My details, if you can pass it onto your insurers."

Grasping the paper, Arizona nodded and put it in her pocket. "Ofcourse, I'll do it as soon as I get home. Again, I'm so sorry and swear I'm not usually this careless."

"Well if you're taking over Richards job as the town's doctor then I'd hope you wouldn't be."

The blonde remembered Miranda Bailey telling her that Dr Richard Webber had been retiring which in turn allowed Arizona to step into his shoes, so to speak. "Yes, honestly. My bedside manner is generally alot better than this. I promise."

"OK. Well, the garage is closed with it being Sunday but I'll talk to Karev in the morning."

"That sounds great. Could I borrow that pad to write my number down for you to contact me and let me know what's happening?" She took the pad and pen, quickly scribbling down her details. "There we go. Thanks. I guess I'll speak to you soon then."

"Yup." With a final look at the blonde, Callie turned and got into her car. Within seconds she'd started up her engine and was off.

With a sigh, Arizona slumped her shoulders and turned back to her own car. Getting in, she shook her head. It was just a momentary set back. Things would get better. Surely they couldn't get any worse?

With another quick look at Pop's, she quickly checked Google maps and found she was only a minute from her home. Starting up the engine, she checked all angles before setting off down the road. She really couldn't wait to get inside and just relax. She thanked her lucky stars her parents had come along last week and set up the essentials for her while she had had to stay in New York and finalise signing her half of the apartment over to Julie. They'd mailed a key over to her which meant she didn't have to pick it up from the real estate agents. Good job when it would be closed today.

A minute later, some houses came into view. Slowing down more, she scanned the street, seeing her turn off on to Chester road. Turning in, she knew her new home was going to be just a little further down on the left. Scanning the house numbers she finally reached number 12 and pulled onto the drive. Turning off the ignition she looked up at the house. It was even more beautiful than she'd imagined. Sure it could do with a little dolling up but that's something she would do over time. "Here we are girl. We're home." She turned and looked at the dog. "Home time" she said causing the dog to bark excitedly. Laughing she got out of the car and made for the back of it. Something caught her eye before she turned. In the drive next door sat the same car she'd smashed into only minutes earlier.

"Ummm.." She walked a little more down the drive and the dent in the back of the car confirmed it was indeed the same car. Of all the people she could have ran into, it ofcourse had to be her new neighbour. Yep, this was definitely shaping up to be one hell of a first day in Sand Springs.

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