Arizona Robbins

"I was raised to be a good man in a storm. Raised to love my country. Love my family. Protect the things I love."

- Arizona Robbins

Arizona Robbins is currently the Chief of Pediatric Surgery and a board member at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital and wife of Callie Torres. She is the mother of Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres.

Early Life
Arizona was named after the battleship, the U.S.S. Arizona, on which her grandfather served. She came from a military family, her father being a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Her brother later joined the army and died.

The way she described her upbringing is that she was "..raised to be a good man in a storm. Raised to love my country. Love my family. Protect the things I love." It led her to be patriotic, loyal and dedicated in her adult life, especially to her family.

She learned to act tough when she had to, due to her name, and never had to "come out" to her parents because it wasn't a shock to them. She had a poster of Cindy Crawford in her room and she wasn't looking at her beauty mark. She never brought any boys home and when she finally brought home a girl, Joanne, her mother wasn't surprised. She had expected her father to react by saying "How fast can you get the hell out of my house?" but instead he asked her "Are you still who I raised you to be?".

Plane Crash
Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital was asked by another hospital at Boise to send over a couple of surgeons to assist the surgeons at Boise with a surgery to separate conjoined twins, a surgery the doctors in Seattle had successfully completed earlier that year. Originally, Alex was on the plane to Boise to represent Arizona's department, but then Arizona heard that he had chosen to take the fellowship at Johns Hopkins instead of staying in Seattle to be study under her. She was furious, scolded him and yelled at him, saying that he could no longer represent the hospital. She took his place on the plane and pulled him off every single pediatric case before she left. During their flight, the back of the plane broke off and the plane crashed in the woods. ("Migration")

Shortly after the crash, Arizona was lying next to the front part of the wreckage and she kept on screaming until Cristina yelled at her to shut up. Arizona then points Meredith, Mark, and Cristina into the direction of a consistent banging sound, which turned out to be Lexie, who was crushed under a part of the plane, banging a belt against the metal. While the others went away, Arizona sat up and tore open her pants, revealing she had an open femur fracture. She was panicking, when the pilot asked if there was someone. He told her he couldn't move. She told him her name and instructed him not to move, as he could injure himself even more. She informed him that she thought they were all alive and then started laughing because she was in shock. When he told her he couldn't feel his legs, she suddenly stopped laughing, and he said he knew that was bad.



Later on, Cristina came back and sought supplies to help splint Arizona's leg. Arizona told her she could do it herself, which she did, but asked Cristina to take a look at Jerry, who was found to be paralyzed. When Cristina yelled, "I found it!", Arizona thought she found the first aid box, but Cristina was talking about her shoe. Arizona then looked at her hand, and noticed there was dry blood on it. She then coughed up blood again. In the evening, Cristina, Meredith, and Derek dragged Mark's body back to the front part of the plane. Mark then informed Arizona that Lexie died. When Arizona was asking Jerry about 4 hours he mentioned earlier, a helicopter passed over the woods, and she screamed along with the others, but it didn't help. While she was out in the woods, Alex left her a message to tell her that he chose to go to Hopkins to see if he was something without her around. When it got dark, Mark told her that he was ready to go to Lexie, but Arizona convinced him to fight to stay alive as she, Callie, and Sofia were waiting for him. Back in Seattle, Callie was dressed in sexy lingerie, waiting for Arizona to come home. ("Flight")

Leg Amputation
After four days in the woods, Arizona and the others were taken to the hospital in Boise, where scans were taken of her leg. While the Chief in Boise recommended amputation, Arizona interfered and told Owen she gave no one permission to cut off her leg. Following her request to go to Callie, she and the others were sedated and put on a plane to Seattle, where Callie started taking care of the infected leg. After Bailey's visit with Sofia, Arizona realized her future was uncertain.The thought of an amputation came back in her head, which scared her so much that she urged Callie to came up with a plan to save the leg and she made her promise that she wouldn't cut if off, and so Callie did. Callie did came up with a plan to save the leg and although Owen mentioned a prosthetic would give Arizona a much better quality of life, the surgery was planned. However, when Alex visited Arizona, she started crashing because of the infection. He did everything he could, but she kept deteriorating. He went to Callie, who was in the middle of the surgery on Derek's hand, and she ordered him to cut off the leg and do his best at it. After the surgery, Callie held Arizona's hand until she woke up. ("Remember the Time")

After her left leg was amputated, Arizona got depressed. When Mark died 30 days later, Callie went into her bedroom, where Arizona was just sitting in bed, and she told Arizona that she couldn't keep doing things alone. She yelled at Arizona to get out of bed and "snap at out this". While Callie was ranting over how Sofia lost a parent and she lost her best friend, Arizona turned towards Callie. "Snap out of this? Snap out of this?" Arizona said while she revealed her residual limb. "How the hell am I supposed to snap out of this when you cut off my leg?" Arizona says. She then turns her back towards Callie again, while Callie left her alone. ("Going, Going, Gone")



Some time later, Callie told Arizona, who was back at home in a wheelchair, about the settlement the survivors were offered by the plane company. While she kept on talking about how good the settlement would be for them, Arizona ignored her and didn't respond, and even pulled away when Callie tried to make physical contact with her. The next day, Callie told Arizona she should come to the settlement meeting to make her own decision about whether or not she wanted to take it.Arizona started sniping that she didn't need to be there, as Callie was there and that Callie took other decisions for her, too, like the one to cut off her leg. Callie came home to get Arizona for the meeting anyway, only to find her sitting in a pool of her own urine in the bathroom, having fired the homecare nurse for not liking her. Arizona blamed Callie that Callie's decision to cut off her leg made her unable to go the toilet on her own. Against her will, Callie picked her up and put her in the shower, and made it clear that Arizona's problems were her problems too, as they lived together. Without Arizona, she went to the meeting, where it was decided not to take the settlement. ("Love the One You're With")

Arizona agreed to go to the hospital to fit a prosthetic, but only if no one knew about it, though Callie accidentally told Alex because she thought he had seen Arizona. Meanwhile, Arizona was introduced to her prosthetist, David Moore. He took a look at her residual limb, commenting that it's healing well as there is no scar tissue. Later, he was putting plaster bandages on Arizona's residuum when Callie came in, thinking Arizona would be ready. Arizona yelled at her for not checking her voice mail, where she left her a message. The next day, Arizona tried on her first prosthetic. Without checking it first, she told him it was fine. He told her not to rush and tried to get her up to take a few steps, but she yelled to let her go when he tried to help her up. He made it clear she still needed help with her leg and that she should let the people in her corner help her. He then went away to do other work and left her alone to give her some time. While she was alone, she tried to take a few steps when Alex came in. She fell, but he caught her. He then took a look at her left leg too and told her they needed her back in her department. "I'm trying," she says. Before he left, he told her Callie was trying too. When David got back, Arizona was standing in front of a mirror. She then gave him some remarks about the prosthetic and he told her he'd do something about it. At the end of the day, Arizona allowed Callie, who was ready to go back to Mark's place, to sit next to her on the couch to watch American Bake Off together. ("I Saw Her Standing There")

Hearing how Callie was struggling with Arizona, Bailey planned to get Arizona back to work. She used a difficult case to lure Arizona out of her apartment and to the hospital. With fake promises to deliver the patient's chart, she managed to get Arizona walking to the door of her apartment. As the chart wasn't there, Arizona was angry and called Bailey, who promised her to check with happened with the chart. She didn't hear back from Bailey, she left an angry message, which was all part of Bailey's plan. When Bailey didn't reply, Arizona left her apartment to go the hospital and get the chart herself. While Bailey confessed to Callie that she may have pushed Arizona too hard, they saw her walking in the hallway. Bailey told Callie to hide, as her presence would mean too much pressure. Arizona walked over to Bailey, and when she saw the chart, she came up with a possible diagnosis. She informed Bailey on the disease, who was actually just playing stupid to make Arizona feel comfortable at work again. ("Second Opinion") 



On Arizona's first day back at work, Callie urged everyone not to make a big deal out of it and unbeknownst to Arizona, she put Heather Brooks on wheelchair duty, so Arizona would have a wheelchair nearby when she wanted to sit. Despite everyone's efforts not to make a big deal out of it, like Alex paying a kid not to ask her about the fake leg, there were some comments about her return and prosthetic, like Bailey mentioning her first surgery was a lot of standing for her first day back. Arizona also walked slower with her walking stick than other doctors, like Alex, who could still run. When they got paged to the ER, Arizona told Alex to run and that she'd follow. While walking to the ER, Arizona noticed Heather with the wheelchair and asked if she could help her, but Heather talked herself out of it with an excuse. When Arizona finally arrived in the ER, April and Alex had already taken the kid to CT. After surgery, Arizona was so proud of herself for getting through the day and completing the surgery that she put all her weight on her left foot, which caused her to fall down. Alex was really worried and sent everyone out to give her some time, but she just laughed about it. After work, Callie came home where she saw Arizona having a little dance party with Sofia and Arizona told her about her good day. ("I Was Made for Lovin' You")

Despite being asked to be a bridesmaid, Arizona didn't want to go to Bailey's wedding because she wouldn't be able to wear high heels, and flats make her feel less feminine and confident. Callie tried to cheer her up, but it didn't really work. Callie then acknowledged the wedding would just be another reminder of the leg, but told her she was still more beautiful than the other women at the wedding. The next day, moments before leaving for the wedding, Arizona confessed she still wanted to stay home. Callie was angry and told her that the wedding would be all about Bailey and not about the leg, which it had been all about for the past five months. Arizona then put her flat shoe on her prosthetic foot and they left for the wedding, where they waited for Bailey. ("Run, Baby, Run")

Callie Torres
Arizona is a lesbian and is currently married to Callie Torres.

At the Emerald City Bar, she saw that Callie was upset and came to comfort her in the bathroom and kissed her. Callie soon decided to ask her out, but Arizona declined the offer after finding out Erica was Callie's first girlfriend. Her reasons were metaphorical: she deals mostly with newborns at work; she does not want to deal with them in her personal life, but she claimed "[she is] super flattered. Super." at the offer. Annoyed, Callie confronted her, but the situation was made more awkward after she discovered that Arizona was on a date with a woman named Julie.

Callie started to avoid her, but she was eventually cornered in the elevator. Arizona then decided to explain that sometimes she doesn't always make the right choice under pressure and that she was wrong. Callie accepted it and Arizona asked her out again and after pretending not to be interested for a few seconds, Callie accepted.

Their relationship continued, but when Callie's father came to visit and discovered that she was dating a girl, he cut Callie off. Mark and Cristina both suggested that she lie and say she broke up with Arizona, but after Arizona approached her and told her that she loved how Callie cared so much about things and wouldn't care if Callie lied, Callie decided not to lie because her family should accept her.

However, Callie began to withdraw slightly and began to avoid Arizona. Arizona then asked if their relationship was just a fling and it had run its course and Callie told her that it probably was. Arizona later approached Callie and Callie told her the real reason was because she didn't have the money for four-star restaurants anymore but Arizona told her that they could stay in and eat sandwiches. Callie countered that neither of them liked sandwiches, so they settled on pizza instead.

The relationship was threatened again when Callie got annoyed at Arizona for believing that George joining the army was awesome, but after hearing that Arizona's brother died in the war, she apologized.

On Arizona's birthday, after a failed surprise party, Arizona told Callie she loved her, and Callie reciprocated her feelings. Callie was dismayed to learn that Arizona didn't want children. She assumed that Arizona's reluctance was related to her brother's death, but Arizona told her she simply liked her life the way it was. They came to the conclusion that they could not continue their relationship, as they both wanted different things. However, after a shooter entered Seattle Grace with a vendetta for Derek, Lexie, and Richard, they were in lockdown together, and eventually decided to get back together and have kids. They passionately kissed in happiness.

Six months after the shooting, Arizona received word that she had been given the Carter Maddison Grant, and was allowed to go to Malawi and become a doctor there. She had applied for this grant two years previously, when she hadn't met Callie yet. After some hesitation, Arizona decided to accept the grant. In the end, Callie was shown to have accepted this as well and decided to leave with Arizona. However, a fight at the airport resulted in Arizona leaving for Africa without Callie. After some time passed, Arizona came back and told Callie she missed her, but Callie closed the door in her face.

Callie continued to reject Arizona's constant pleading and apologies. Eventually, Callie revealed that she was pregnant with Mark's baby. After asking for time to process, Arizona accepted the situation, and she and Callie restarted their relationship. Callie and Arizona later reconciled and they moved back in together. After seeing the baby's heartbeat for the first time, Arizona referred to the baby as "theirs."

However, tensions continued with Mark in the picture as an active and interested father. Callie gifted Arizona with a weekend getaway, but continued communicating with Mark as she and Arizona drove. Arizona's jealousy came to the forefront, and the two argued, with Callie concluding, "Tell me what you want and I'll do it." After a pause, Arizona said, "Marry me." They had shocked faces as they approached a stopped truck and crashed. Arizona was slightly battered, but Callie (who'd taken off her seatbelt) flew through the windshield. A series of surgeries followed (including the delivery of her very premature baby) along with emotional breakdowns by both Mark and Arizona. Callie eventually woke up and turned to Arizona, who was sitting at her bedside, and whispered, "Yes, I'll marry you." They finally married at a ceremony officiated by Miranda Bailey.

Lauren Boswell
Dr. Lauren Boswell came to GSM to perform a surgery on an infant with his brain growing on the outside of his head. She was very flirtatious with Arizona, who happily flirted back. At the start of the super storm, she asked for Arizona to show her to an on-call room to rest in. Arizona obliged and took her there. They said their goodbyes and Arizona extended her arm for a handshake. Lauren simply laughed and they hugged. The lights flickered off from the super storm as they started kissing. As the lights flickered back on, Arizona pushed her off, saying that she couldn't do that. Arizona almost left and Lauren said, "Arizona, you are allowed to lose a little bit of control." Arizona pondered the thought for a moment and ended up locking the door instead of opening it. She returned to Lauren and kissed her while she pulled off Lauren's lab coat.

Leah Murphy
On the night of the fundraising gala, Arizona Robbins and April Kepner bonded over drinks in the hospital storage closet. Since they were too intoxicated to drive, Leah called them a cab. Shortly thereafter, Leah called to make sure the girls arrived home safely and ended up visiting Arizona at her apartment. The two watched movies and talked all night (though Arizona remembered none of it). Worried about what took place that night, Arizona asked Leah if anything happened between them and Leah told her nothing had. However, the two ended up making out on a different occasion, causing Leah to become somewhat obssesed with Arizona (much like she did with Alex). Arizona rebuffed her obsession and ended things. Leah told Arizona that she respected her so much and the thought of Arizona thinking about her in that way made her feel amazing. That night Arizona texted Leah asking 'What are you up to?' implying that she wanted her to come over. On the morning of Halloween, Leah wakes up in Arizona's hotel bed. She gets ready to leave, waking up Arizona, Arizona says that she doesn't have to leave. Leah says she knows she's not supposed to sleep over and apologizes, but Arizona says it's okay. Leah thinks it's not, as she's all about easy. At the hospital, Leah gets bit in the neck by a drug addict and is tested for HIV. Arizona helped calm her worry. She told Leah a similar story to reach out to her.

Miranda Bailey
When Arizona changed Jackson's treatment plan, Bailey was furious as she supported Kenley's decision and believed it was the right choice. However, Arizona disagreed, stating that more senior peds surgeons believed that course of treatment was the right choice, but she wanted to try another approach. Bailey went to the Chief, clearly expressing her dissatisfaction with this choice, both medically and personally. The Chief told Bailey that Arizona Robbins was top of her class and chief resident.

After more clear and vocal disagreements over Jackson's treatment from Bailey (relating to placing him on the transplant list), Bailey wanted a second opinion and Robbins obliged, revealing in the process that she knows the head of pediatric surgery at John's Hopkins to the point of being on first name terms with him (telling Bailey to say that "Arizona" sent her), all the while berating Bailey for second guessing her judgment ever since she arrived.

Arizona eventually began to develop a rapport with Bailey, allowing her to remove the clamp in Jackson's transplant.

Dr. Robbins reassured Bailey that she was a peds surgeon, claiming she was "uniquely qualified", and supporting her in her application, reminding her about the competition and her letters of recommendation, but remained super excited for her to move onto her service, in her own words described as "Yay!".

Teddy Altman
On her first day at the hospital, the only person Teddy knew was Owen. They joined Arizona, Mark, and Callie in the cafeteria. After lunch, Teddy and Arizona walked to the ER together. Jackson and Cristina were waiting for Arizona, because their patient was a boy with asthma. Teddy did a little exam and found at the boy had cardiac asthma. She asked for an OR, but Cristina, who had been questioning Teddy's abilities all day, was reluctant. Teddy then made it clear to Cristina that she had to what she said, and left. Arizona smilingly commented that she really liked Teddy.

Later, when Arizona noticed Teddy staring mooningly at Owen, Arizona declared that the two of them were going to be friends, going so far as to claim that, "I'm an awesome friend." She suggested that they do a ladies' night.

April Kepner
After seeing Callie at the fundraising gala, Arizona escaped back to the hospital, where she hid in a supply closet to cry. April found her there and offered comfort, but Arizona kindly sent her away. However, at the party, April overheard Callie tell everyone that Arizona died in the plane crash they were in. Furious at this, she took two bottles of champagne and met Arizona in the hospital storage closet where she was hiding to share a drink and talk. They soon became very open with each other and discussed their relationship problems together, bonding them. April later stood up for Arizona against Callie when Callie mentioned wanting to move back into the apartment. She reminded Callie that Arizona needs the elevator and that it's already retrofitted to be accessible for her.

Alex Karev
Alex Karev and Arizona Robbins started out with a rocky relationship when they first met. But as time went on, Karev realized that Arizona was one of the few people who actually believed in him. Arizona Robbins saw Karev as a promising peds surgeon who was dedicated despite his temper and personal issues and continued to maintain a good mentor-student relationship with him until the end of Alex's residency, when Karev's decision to leave Seattle to take the fellowship offer at Hopkins led her to taking his place on a plane that ended up crashing. While she is in the hospital trying to fight the infection in her leg, she mentions that she is still very much "pissed off" and states that she feels as though Karev should have been in the crash rather than herself, because she spent the whole time thinking about her wife and her baby and he has no wife and no baby; he has no one.

Others
Arizona initially got off on the wrong foot with Dr. Bailey and Karev. Alex couldn't understand how she could be so perky after harvesting organs from a young child. When Dr. Kenley died Dr. Bailey took offence in Arizona changing Jackson Prescott's course of treatment and proceeded to complain to the Chief and call her an "infant". However, Bailey soon realized that Arizona is a competent doctor and grew closer with her after applying for a peds fellowship.

After becoming Callie's girlfriend, Arizona also became good enough friends with Mark and Cristina.

Career


Following the death of Dr. Jordan Kenley, Dr. Robbins was appointed as Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital. She was top of her class and she was the chief resident in her fifth year at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She then completed her pediatric surgical fellowship at Seattle Grace Hospital.

When Bailey and Robbins first worked together, Richard said to Bailey that "She's the best that anyone's seen in a long time, just like you are". She is also on a first name basis with the Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Johns Hopkins, as she studied under him during her residency.

When Arizona won a grant to advance pediatric surgery in less developed countries, she gave her notice and resigned. Later, she returns to Seattle Grace as an attending under Dr. Robert Stark, the interim Chief of Pediatric Surgery. A year later, Arizona resumes her position as the chief pediatric surgeon.

She is very much aware of the nature of her job, Robbins has seen things in pediatric surgery to the extent she has nightmares about the tiny coffins that her patients will be buried in, and so she will remain optimistic in the face of the tragedy involved in her job.

Her optimism and child-friendly abilities can be seen frequently and are also shown as she has cute animals on her lab coat; what appears to be a monkey or a lion above the Seattle Grace logo on the right hand side of her lab coat and a cat above her name and title on the left hand side; and she even wears Heelys at work, heeling around the hospital. When Cristina Yang was put on her service she made Cristina attach a small toy bear, Mr. Bear, to her lab coat and made sure she knew that pediatric surgery was not general surgery in miniature and that Cristina had to like children.

Notes and Trivia

 * Arizona wears a Holly Hobbie scrup cap.
 * Arizona likes pizza.
 * Arizona dislikes sandwiches.
 * When confronting someone who commands respect and authourity, such as her father or Chief Webber, she often breaks down and cries.
 * When under pressure and in trouble, Arizona smokes cigarettes.
 * When her brother died, she grieved by eating donuts and crying.
 * Her birthday may be November 5, the original air date of the episode Invest in Love, which depicts her birthday. If this is true, she would be a Scorpio.
 * She dislikes pumpkin scones.
 * Arizona's left leg was amputated above the knee following her being in a plane crash.
 * Sofia calls her Mama.
 * Arizona refers to her patients as tiny humans and to their parents as tiny human makers.
 * She hates camping.
 * During Arizona's third year as a med student, doing an internal medicine rotation, she experienced an HIV-scare due to an incorrect needle retraction of an end-stage AIDS patient.

Notable Episodes
These episodes are Arizona-centric or are otherwise very informative about her life.
 * Wish You Were Here
 * Beat Your Heart Out
 * Invasion
 * Invest in Love
 * Song Beneath the Song
 * White Wedding
 * Flight
 * Remember the Time
 * I Saw Her Standing There
 * Walking on a Dream
 * Idle Hands

Memorable Quotes

 * Most people think I was named for the state, but it's not true. I was named for a battleship, the U.S.S. Arizona. My grandfather was serving on the Arizona when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he saved 19 men before he drowned. Pretty much everything my father did his whole life was about honoring that sacrifice. I was raised to be a good man in a storm. Raised to love my country, love my family, protect the things I love. When my father, Colonel Daniel Robbins of the United States Marine Corps heard that I was a lesbian, he said he had only one question. I was prepared for, "How fast can you get the hell out of my house?" But instead, it was, "Are you still who I raised you to be?" My father believed in country the way that you believe in God. And my father is not a man who bends, but he bent for me because I'm his daughter. I'm a good man in a storm. I love your daughter, and I protect the things that I love. Not that I need to. She doesn't need it. She's strong, and caring, and honorable. And she's who you raised her to be.