Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

"Rise and shine," Arizona chirped – purposefully loud and decisively irritating – as she knocked loudly on Alex's bedroom door. She'd lived with him for the last year, and she had more than learned her lesson from barging into his bedroom unannounced.

She waited outside of his door, wedging a heavy box between herself and the wall, as well as precariously bringing her leg up so her thigh was supporting the bottom of it before she knocked again with the back of her knuckles, "Karev, get your ass up; you know I'm not going to stop knocking!"

Though she hoped it was soon because this box was starting to weigh her down, and she didn't want to drop it to the ground only to have to pick it up again to haul out to her car. Just as she lifted her hand again, the door swung open, revealing her roommate in his typical boxers and tank top sleepwear.

The glare on his face was also typical, "What the hell?"

Waving her hand behind him to gesture at his alarm clock, she huffed out a breath, "It's past noon, and someone promised to help me with some heavy lifting."

It was only then that his sleep narrowed eyes darted to the box she was holding up, and he heaved a sigh, "You woke me up to force me into manual fucking labor," he grumbled, and it was in his sigh that she knew she had him already.

It prompted a smile to tug up her lips, dimples popping, "I stacked everything that needs to come out to the car right outside my bedroom!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be out in a minute," was the response she got – really, it was all the response she needed – as Alex turned away from her to walk back towards his closet.

Belatedly, she noticed the second body lying, thankfully under the covers, in his bed, and she winced, feeling just a tug of guilt for the way Jo groaned, because she knew she must have woken her up, too.

But that slight tug of guilt disappeared pretty quickly, considering the many times Alex wasn't the most considerate of roommates when it came to her own house guests, and she muttered, "Good morning, Jo," before grunting slightly and pushing herself off of the wall and wrapping both of her arms securely around the box once more.

As she muscled her way out of the door and out into the courtyard-like parking lot, she breathed a sigh of relief with having her car strategically parked so close. This wasn't the first time that she was glad she lived on the first floor of the apartment complex; that had actually happened nearly a year ago, during the first party she and Alex had thrown while living here, and given the amount of drunk people who had staggered out her door, it made her grateful that there were no stairs for anyone to fall down.

It would have been a disaster.

This was still good though, she thought with another small grunt, placing the box down on the ground, hands on her hips as she took in a deep breath and looked around. The apartment complex wasn't extravagant – not nearly – but it was decent enough.

Clean, fairly sized apartments within a couple of miles from Johns Hopkins basically insured that most of the renters were students, much like herself and Alex. They'd moved in early last August, after apartment hunting in the area for weeks before. And they were lucky to get this apartment when they did, considering it only opened up because another student who had been living there failed out, according to the landlord.

Arizona wasn't often one who felt glad for someone else's misfortune, but in that particular instance, she had been grateful. Beginning med school without a decent place to live would have been less than ideal.

Blowing her breath out, she used it to try to blow wisps of hair out of her face before reaching out to pull up the back door of her car, biting her lip as she surveyed the somewhat spacious – as spacious as you can get with a midsize hatchback, really – trunk storage.

There were already a few things in here that she'd slowly been moving in over the last few days. A first-aid kit, a pack of water, and a few items that she was bringing home – well, home to her parent's house in Berkeley, California, where she was going to be staying for the next couple of months – and intended to keep there.

She was heading home for the summer now that her first year at med school was complete. And her drive across the country, from Baltimore to Berkeley, had been something she'd been looking forward to for the last few months. It was methodically planned, all of the stops she intended on making plugged into the GPS on her phone, as well as carefully marked on an actual paper map that she had carefully tucked into the glove compartment.

Just in case.

And that trip was starting today. In fact, to maintain her schedule, she would actually be departing in less than an hour, she realized with a small frown as she tucked her phone into her back pocket after checking the time.

As she reached down to pull the box that was on the ground up into her arms to slide it into the back of her Prius, the door to her apartment burst open to reveal Alex, with his arms laden with her heaviest box, and two giant duffel bags slung over his shoulders. He kicked the door shut behind him in a way that she would typically reprimand him for because of possible damage and the fact that their landlord was pretty big on nitpicking fees when leases were up.

The reprimand generally worked, given the time he had to pay a ton of damage fees from the cracked door he'd caused in his dorm room in their undergrad time at Georgetown University.

However, considering he was doing this for her and sparing her the heavy lifting that she definitely didn't want to do herself, she studiously kept her mouth shut.

Within moments, he was in front of her and unceremoniously dumping her items onto the ground in front of her, grunting with the effort, "Fuck. Here's almost all of your junk."

Blue eyes rolled at him even as she grinned, "Oh, and here I thought Mr. All-State Wrestling Championship could handle a bit of a workout."

He waved off her comment before leaning down again and grabbing one of the boxes he'd hauled out, "Jesus, are you packing bricks to take home or what?"

Arizona leaned over a bit to peer into the top of the box, just to double check, before she moved back, "Nope, just books." Including some for summer reading when she would have the time, and some of their textbooks.

Several of which were on the top of the pile and Alex looked in on them with disdain, "That's what you're doing with your summer? Rereading our textbooks?" With a sigh, he slid the box into the car, pushing it in to leave room, as he shook his head and slanted her a look, "What did you do during summer breaks when you were a kid? Tell other kids not to run too fast while playing tag? Swim in the shallow end of the pool with a lifejacket on?"

Narrowing her eyes at him, even though it was kind of hard to completely hold in a chuckle, she held up her hands in surrender, "You caught me." But before he could add onto his repertoire of jokes like she knew he would she reached out to smack his arm, "But seriously, I'm just going to make some flashcards and stuff. Don't want to fall behind and get lazy, like some people," she threw back with a sly grin, as she sat back and leaned against the car, keeping her sneaker covered feet on the ground.

He reached down to take one of the duffel bags, and heaved it up into the storage space, before sitting next to her on the bumper, "Nah, I'll remember it all."

Blue eyes rolled as she snorted – because for as different as they were and always had been, he always amused her – before she bent at the waist to pull up her other bag, and setting it over her thighs, "Sure you will."

She'd met Alex on their first day of undergrad at Georgetown, almost five years ago. They'd lived on the same floor of their dorm, and even though she wouldn't say it was friendship at first sight, mostly because she'd kind of thought he was a bit of an ass, their friendship had unexpectedly bloomed over the years.

And after finding out they'd both gotten into Johns Hopkins, the decision to find an apartment together had been an easy one to make. She'd never regretted it, either, because he'd become her best friend.

Even though her initial assessment that he was kind of an ass could still be true, she couldn't imagine doing this without him. Besides, if it weren't for him, she probably would have lived with, as he called them, one of her lesbian friend-of-a-friend contacts that she'd had in the area. Which she definitely wouldn't have wanted to do in retrospect.

She leaned back slightly, resting her back against her box of books, and letting out a sigh as she squinted against the sun beaming down on her. It was almost June in Baltimore, and today was unreasonably humid, in her opinion.

Though, she was planning on embarking on her road trip, which would include going through several southern states, and the summer was just starting, so she should probably get used to the heat.

This past year here had been good to her and she was looking forward to coming back of course, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't anticipating seeing her parents and her brother for the summer after a long year here.

Alex swearing softly drew her out of her thoughts, and she turned a bit in her seat to look at him as he adjusted some of her boxes to make for a more spacious area. Though it was kind of unnecessary, given the fact that nearly everything she needed was already out here.

Her friend was muttering, causing her to quirk her eyebrow in amusement as she caught him muttering under his breath, "A fucking wrestler is easier to maneuver than this damn box." When he finally got it into a good adjustment, he sighed and leaned back, dark eyes look up at Arizona, "And why did I agree to be your mule today, again?"

Eyes glinting in challenge, she tilted her head, pretending to think, "Well, as I recall, someone canceled on this trip at the last minute and the heavy lifting was a guilt offer to make him feel less ashamed for potentially ruining his best friend's long-awaited adventure."

This road trip had been planned out since the New Year, when they'd both decided to stay at their apartment rather than at home. It initially started as an idea they'd joked about while drunk – that the next time they had to go see their families, they should just drive across the country rather than fly.

But then, the idea had seemed more and more like something that they would want to do. So the actual plan had taken shape, that when they were going home for the summer, they would make an event of it. Alex was from a city in Nevada that was south of Vegas, and it was less than a day's drive from there to her home, so the majority of their trip would be the two of them on the open road.

On the open road, and as Alex had said in the beginning, picking up chicks and breaking hearts all across the country. At which she had rolled her eyes, but it was kind of appealing.

That was before he'd met Jo, an undergrad who she had admittedly struck up a friendship with as well, and Alex had since stopped "picking up chicks and breaking hearts" in the spirit of their fledgling relationship.

It was also before he got a job opportunity a month ago, through a program at the university, and the pay was too good to pass up. Too good to even pass up for a once in a lifetime cross country road trip with his best friend.

Which, she understood. She did. She was lucky enough to have her school bills paid by her parents, and the nannying job she'd done throughout undergrad and saved most every penny from was still sitting in her bank account for things like this road trip. Alex had a different home situation and she wasn't going to begrudge him this chance.

Maybe for some good natured ribbing, but he took it in stride.

The long suffering sigh he let out was cut short when he finished it by huffing out a breath, "Yeah, well, I feel like that should be completely forgiven – and possibly even praised – for the fact that I found you a damn new road trip partner, didn't I?"

Her eyes narrowed and arms crossed at the mention of said new road trip partner that Alex had suspiciously rustled up for her out of the blue. After he'd bowed out of the excursion, Arizona had briefly contemplated doing the same thing. Or at the very least, driving with minimal stops to make it a short trip.

But damn it, she was looking forward to the trip, she'd planned it for months, and even though it wasn't going to be as fun without someone else, she was an independent woman and she could still have a good time.

"You know I still find it ridiculously creepy that you somehow managed to find some stranger to come on the trip with me," she deadpanned, but was completely serious as she pushed herself up and turned around to rearrange the duffel bags once again.

Though she'd vowed to keep going with her planned trip, her disappointment had been palpable. Until Alex had told her over beers two weeks ago after their first final that he had found someone who was looking to go to California, like it was the answer to all of her problems.

Alex reached out to pull her first aid kit from being wedged against the back of the back seat, fiddling with it as he glared at her, "I told you it wasn't a stranger. It's –"

"A friend of a friend," she parroted his own words back to him, "But that really doesn't make it less ominous or suspicious, considering you haven't told me who it is," she snapped out, because honestly, she had been wondering for the last couple of weeks what Alex's aim was in not telling her who this "friend of a friend" was.

He refused to even tell her the "friend" that connected them.

But, well, while she was willing to do the entire trip by herself, because the experience seemed like something she would enjoy, she hadn't been exactly pumped about doing the whole thing on her own dime, spending double what was in the original budget, rather than splitting the price of gas and hotel rooms.

It was one of the benefits of doing the trip with another person, and what had prompted her to agree to this mystery person joining her, despite their hidden identity.

All Alex did was shrug, "Yeah, well, you'll find out soon enough." Then he slid a look over his shoulder, at all of her stuff that took up nearly the entire area, "But I'm not sure she's going to be happy about not having any space in here for her stuff."

Blue eyes rolled once more, "Her stuff is going to go in the backseat," she retorted, before turning to eye at the space. Maybe she should consider moving it around, though; she didn't want her road trip partner to feel unwelcome or something.

Heaving a sigh, she gave in to those thoughts; she could pack everything together better than this to give her mystery guest more space.

As she reached out to take the strap of her duffel bag, she lifted her arm to swipe against her forehead, "So, you said she's going to be meeting me here?"

He grunted his affirmation, "Yeah, in like less than ten minutes."

"Perfect," she murmured, because they really needed to get going to make it to the first stop, and then to the first hotel in time to get a good night's sleep, in order to really kick off their trip tomorrow morning, bright and early.

With a deep breath, Alex pushed himself off of the car and put the first aid kit he was still holding balancing on the bumper, "All right, well. I need some breakfast."

Adjusting to move farther into the backspace of her car to move around some of her boxes and bags – just in case her traveling companion did need more room – she shook her head at him, "It's almost one in the afternoon!"

But he was already walking away from her, "Doesn't matter! Come in and say bye before you leave for good," he called over his shoulder.

"Leave for good," she muttered under her breath, with a quiet snort because she was going to be back in two months, "Okay."

As she stacked some of her duffel bags on top of one another, slightly precariously yet still effectively, she tried again to come up with the list of people that Alex could have set her up with for the road trip. The thing was, there was such a slim chance that it was someone that she didn't also know, which made her all the more curious.

Neither of them had known anyone in the area when they'd moved here, and due to the fact that they'd moved at the same time, lived in the same apartment, and were both in the majority of the same classes… well, that didn't leave a lot of room for him to meet "friends of friends" that she hadn't met, herself.

Which meant that he was hiding it because he felt like he had to.

God, she was hoping it was not Liz, the girl Alex knew from his study group that he had, at one time at the beginning of the year, been sleeping with. She'd tried to make conversation with her whenever she could, but the girl was, well, very dull.

She froze as she realized her foot made contact with the first aid kit Alex had perched on her bumper, and then felt irritated at herself when she heard the contents open on the parking lot under her car.

Climbing out of the car, she crouched down, starting to pack the kit back up. But as she heard footsteps approach, her hand froze over the stack of band-aids she had been about to grab, and blue eyes looked ahead just in time to see a nice pedicure – black nails – with clearly feminine feet in gladiator sandals approach.

And then those feet froze, not coming a step closer.

Slowly, Arizona lifted her head, skimming her eyes farther, up long, tanned, toned legs topped off with black shorts – and god, her mouth went dry, her stomach tingling with the beginnings of attraction. This definitely wasn't Liz, and she thought maybe that traveling with this woman wasn't going to be bad or awkward at all.

But it might if you don't stop staring at those legs, she berated herself, and purposefully moved her gaze up to the face of her companion.

Oh.

Well, the flushed excitement she had been feeling was dulled a bit, because standing in front of her with an incredulous look on her face, a dark eyebrow arched down at her with hands on curvy hips, stood Callie Torres.

Arizona filed Callie Torres under certain categories. She was her neighbor, of course. A fellow med student, who had a weird study tactic she employed that somehow guaranteed a top grade in the class. A "badass" – though Arizona remained uncertain as to whether or not she really was one or simply believed herself to be one. And, given Arizona's obvious perusal of her body, she was incredibly attractive.

But there was that little thing about Callie Torres that had never really rubbed Arizona the right way, no pun intended –

"This has to be a joke," Callie commented, her voice low and serious.

Arizona had never been able to figure her out.

Her personality was often times brash, and short tempered. She could be extremely avoidant, though Arizona knew from having classes with her and living next to her that she could also be talkative and opinionated. And there really was never a pattern to the behavior, as far as Arizona could tell; she never knew what to expect with her. She liked to be able to know where someone was coming from, to know what to think about them.

All right, okay, maybe there were a few issues between them, so sometimes she knew what to expect. But – still. Many of their interactions were unpleasant, especially as of late. It was no freaking wonder Alex hadn't told her who his friend-of-a-friend was.

With a deep sigh, already feeling the excitement of her road trip dimming a bit with annoyance, she pushed herself up, rubbing her hands up and down her thighs to quickly dust them off. The first time that she'd met Callie had been almost exactly where they were standing right now, in an encounter that she referred to as Incident Number One. The Box Incident.

She and Alex had moved in only a day before her new neighbors – one of whom turned out to be Callie – were moving in last summer. As she had been walking out of her apartment, she had looked over her shoulder to tell Alex she was heading to the store, and swung open the screen door a little harder than intended.

Which incidentally then hit the stack of boxes that were being moved into the apartment next to hers, with unintended force. And four boxes full of personal belongings fell to the ground – about half of them breaking. All of those items? Belonged to Callie Torres.

She would say that was definitely what had gotten them off to a bad start, though Callie had been rather forgiving, even though she had clearly been flustered and upset at the time. Arizona wouldn't say that their issues really started until Incident Number Two, but, well, she didn't really think she had done anything particularly wrong in that instance.

But it had really been Incident Number Three – the Car Incident – that really cemented it. Said incident had coincidentally happened just a few weeks ago, and it involved Arizona, a party, a car accident – that, thankfully, no one had been injured in – and…

Callie Torres's prized vehicle.

Arizona wasn't really a "car person" but she did know that Callie took great care in maintaining her car – which Arizona couldn't exactly recognize, but she did know that it wasn't one that was easy to find and was old. A classic.

Yeah. That moment had probably set in stone - if it hadn't already been set in stone - the fact that they were going to be living as neighbors with a tension between them forever. At least, throughout med school, considering Arizona couldn't imagine herself or Callie failing out or finding an apartment that was better than where they lived in terms of price and location before graduation.

When the brunette crossed her arms, dark eyes skimming up and down Arizona for a moment before darting away and looking behind her, into the car where the blonde's belongings were, then back to her face, with a questioning look taking over her expression.

Then she remembered Callie's words from moments ago, and she took a deep breath – because maybe Callie wasn't even the person she was supposed to be driving with. The taller woman did live about five feet away from where she was currently glaring at Arizona, and maybe this was just going to turn into one of their little snipping, verbal back and forths.

That had been occurring with greater frequency since the Car Incident. Basically whenever they were within a few feet of one another. And all were started by the brunette.

However. This was supposed to be a good day – road trip day. And she wasn't going to let it be spoiled by a bad attitude in the form of the conundrum of Callie Torres, so she just took a deep breath, "What has to be a joke?"

A few seconds ticked by as Callie stared at her, and Arizona almost wanted to squirm because it looked like the brunette was trying to find some sort of answer, but Arizona didn't have any to give her because she didn't know the question.

Callie finally relented and just asked, "You're really not kidding?"

Confusion made her forehead crinkle and she barely resisted the urge to throw her arms up in the air, "What are you talking about?"

A second later, Callie was reaching into her pocket to pull out a piece of paper that Arizona could see some writing on as the brunette read off of it, "Meet at blue Prius, one pm." She read it slowly, quietly, as if confirming to herself that the information was really accurate as her eyes slid over Arizona's car – indeed, a blue Prius – and it was just about to be one in the afternoon.

Those dark eyes that she couldn't get a read on stared into her own, "You're really driving to California?"

Well, that confirmed it, and the small whisper of a voice that said maybe this was a strange misunderstanding disappeared as she sighed, "Yep. And you're my mysterious road trip partner?"

"How do you even have this car right now?" Callie blurted out, her hands going back to her hips.

Arizona found herself mirroring that stance, her eyebrows lifting in confusion, "What do you mean?" she asked slowly, turning for a moment to double check that the car behind her was indeed her Prius. It was. "This is my car."

Callie eyed her for a moment, eyebrows drawing up and then down, her eyes widening and then narrowing, and it might have been comical if not for the fact that she was clearly dead serious as she exclaimed, "Then whose car were you driving when you hit mine?!"

Arizona groaned, because of course that was going to come up again, "Oh my god, you need to let that go!"

It had been an extremely unpleasant night, not to mention the days that had followed. All full of heated looks – and not in any sort of good, passionate way – and talks about insurance and Callie sprouting off some car terms that Arizona didn't really follow.

"Easy for you to say," the brunette muttered, her sandaled foot kicking at the cement below before she sighed and continued to glare.

Which Arizona readily returned, because she had done everything she could to apologize to Callie and had offered to pay for the damage. An offer that Callie refused to take, she might add, and a part of her thought that Callie refused to let her pay for the damages just so she had another reason to still act all angry, "The car that the accident happened in, wasn't mine. I just happened to be driving it at the time. Do I need to apologize for it again?"

The brunette ignored her sarcastic question – though if Arizona genuinely thought Callie would want to hear it, she would have apologized, again. But, as it was, that was one of the many things she didn't understand about Callie Torres.

Then she tilted her head, and tendrils of that raven black hair just grazed her tan shoulder from her ponytail, "And that is supposed to inspire confidence in the fact that you're supposed to be driving me across the country?"

There might have been a hint of a smile there, a brief moment of lightness in her voice. But if it was true, then it was gone in the space of a second. She kind of thought she was imagining it, because Callie didn't normally smile and tease Arizona. It was part of the brunette that gave Arizona a bit of a headache, and she was in no mood to try to figure it out. She already wanted to be on the road by now, for goodness sake. That had been part of her nicely crafted plan. And this whole thing was throwing a wrench right into it.

With that thought in mind, she shook her head and brought her hands up to rub over her face real quick, taking a deep breath to calm herself down, "Look, you can trust that I'm not going to kill you on the trip or you can take a different mode of transportation. Because this one leaves in five minutes, with or without you."

Callie's head remained tilted as she took in her words, eyebrows drawing together slightly as if taking in what Arizona said, before letting out a sigh and turning to walk back into her apartment. Not giving Arizona a sign as to whether or not she would actually be in her vehicle in five minutes.

The blonde watched her go, and she was pretty sure – given what she knew about Callie, though it admittedly wasn't a ton – that she would not be coming back out in a few minutes to take on the adventure to California.

With the last couple of minutes making her feel a little… unsettled, she placed the first aid kit in again and leaned it against the boxes, before reaching up to wrap her fingertips around the edge of the rear door of her car, bringing it down to shut over all of her stuff with an air of finality.

It was no wonder why Alex had gone back into their apartment before his "guest" had arrived, she thought, as she pulled open the screen door to their apartment, letting it shut behind her as she walked into the kitchen. Her friend in question stood at the stove with his back to her, "Came to say your goodbyes?"

She ignored that and walked around the island counter so she could face him, going straight for answers, "Really? Callie Torres is your friend-of-a-friend?"

He hesitated for a moment, before bracing his hands against the counter and leaning back, "Dude, you're driving to California. She needed a way to get there," and he shrugged, as if to say and the rest is history.

All right, so she couldn't exactly argue with that logic because she knew to Alex it was close to being that simple, and she just shook her head slightly. A few seconds of silence beat between them as she took that in, "You do realize that out of the many people we've met this year, she likes me the least out of all of them – as in not really at all – and now you're setting me up to be trapped in my admittedly small vehicle with her for an extended period of time. You realize that, right?"

Alex looked a little guilty as she sheepishly reached up to scratch the back of his neck, "Well, yeah. But look, you didn't want to go and be by yourself, and have no one to split the expenses with you, and I couldn't go anymore. I felt shitty canceling on you, Robbins. And Elise told me that Torres was going to California, too, and we figured… why not? She's better than no one, right?"

So that was the connecting friend, Arizona realized. Elise was Callie's roommate – who might even have disliked Arizona more than Callie herself did. Elise was the kind of person who seemed to always know everything you were thinking, even if you didn't think you knew it yourself. Arizona found that to be unsettling.

Plus, she smoked a lot of pot, and the smell would waft into her and Alex's apartment, which frustrated Arizona as much as Elise said that the music and people from she and Alex's parties bothered her.

"We'll see," she murmured, truly meaning it. She doubted Callie was even going to actually go on the trip, seeing as how Elise had clearly not told her Arizona was going to be the one driving. But if she did go… at the very least, Arizona supposed it wouldn't be boring.

Alex took that as encouragement to continue speaking, and he turned back around to the stove, where he was cooking some bacon, "And besides, you never even gave me a reason why you don't really like her, besides that she's kind of hard to read."

That was because she didn't talk about Incident Number Two, even with Alex. And she just shook her head, the thought of it sinking her stomach a little bit, "It's not – I don't not like her," she answered weakly. Which, okay, so they had their issues and Callie definitely wasn't her favorite person, but she didn't actively dislike the woman. It was just… "It's complicated. She doesn't like me. Which makes it awkward."

The only response she got was a slightly apologetic look.

Regardless, there was no more time to dwell on the matter, and she pushed herself up from the counter, "I have to go. Have a good summer, Karev. Don't trash the apartment too much," she threw him a small grin before turning to face the small cooler she'd put some drinks and snacks in, because her parents had always drilled into her that she could never been too prepared.

He just smirked, "Have fun with Torres. Could be a better time than you expect. Maybe it'll surprise you."

"Doubt it," she tossed back, and she hauled the cooler up into her arms. It was a much smoother trip than she'd had with the heavy box earlier, and she opened the backseat door behind the passenger side, placing the cooler on the ground before taking out a water for the drive.

Arizona shut the door softly, and looked over her shoulder at Callie's apartment door, identical to her own and so close to it, but there was no indication of life coming from inside. With a shrug, she walked around the car, situating herself in the driver's seat and turning on the air conditioning, while tapping her fingers against the steering wheel.

There was a minute left until she said she was leaving, she thought idly as she fiddled with the radio. Callie still hadn't come out with any bags in hand or made any indication that she was going to be joining her, so maybe she was right and the brunette wasn't coming. Just what she had expected.

Maybe –

Then that door swung open, and Callie walked out with a duffel bag over her shoulder and wheeling a decently sized suitcase. She bit her lip, her stomach tightening in something that she couldn't quite identify. Anxiety? Nerves?

Anticipation?

When Callie reached the car, she tapped lightly on the passenger window and Arizona cracked it enough to hear her ask, "Well, where am I supposed to put this stuff?"

Shaking her head a bit to clear it – maybe she shouldn't be surprised that Callie was apparently choosing to join her on this trip because she had said that she couldn't always put her finger on what Callie Torres was thinking – she gestured to the empty backseat. If she thought the taller woman would appreciate it, she would have gotten out herself to help put everything back there.

As it was… she didn't think Callie would appreciate that, given the fact that she usually went out of her way to have as little interaction with Arizona as possible.

Her eyes tracked the movements of strong, uncovered arms from Callie's tank top as she slid in her stuff to the backseat – she was bringing much less than Arizona was. Then she snapped her head to face forward as to not be caught looking, as Callie shut the door and then opened the passenger side.

But she couldn't help but throw her a quick look out of surprise – because this was actually happening. Callie freaking Torres, who avoided her and when they were together was generally unpleasant, was voluntarily getting into her car to go on a road trip.

She was met with a small eye roll, as Callie told her with a quiet, terse voice, "I'm just along for the ride."

Arizona didn't say anything in response. She wasn't a fortune teller and didn't presume to know the future by any means, but she was fairly certain that this trip was definitely going to be different from what she'd been expecting.

Please let me know what you think!

This story is intended to be less than 20 chapters, so I hope you enjoy it and stick along for the ride.