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“Calliope–”
"Don't call me that,” Callie whispered harshly.
“Callie,” Arizona ameliorated. Otherwise she may draw attention.
“Do we have to discuss this further? Really?” Callie sighed.
“We’re co-parenting, so yes, we do.” Arizona was adamant. “She’s not living with just you anymore. We’re both here, so we will both handle decisions. I mean, technically I still have full custody.”
Callie was silent for a moment.“That was a low blow.”
Was Callie actually mad? Had she taken it all too far?
Callie walked briskly down the hallway, Arizona at her heels. Surveying left and then right, determining that there were no witnesses, she grabbed Arizona’s hand and quickly tugged her into an on-call room.
Closing and then locking the door behind them, Callie’s demeanor instantly changed. She smiled, a strong, tan hand cupping a fair, dimpled cheek, leaning in for a sweet kiss. She lingered for a moment before pulling back.
“Good morning,” Arizona murmured once they parted.
“Morning, pretty lady,” Callie replied, grinning.
“I didn’t actually upset you, did I? I didn’t mean it. I was just acting.” Arizona ran a hand down Callie’s toned arm. God, she missed those impossibly strong arms.
“Nope. You’re perfect,” Callie murmured, hauling Arizona in for another kiss.
Then, just as Arizona’s lips parted for Callie, Callie’s pager began to sound.
“Shit,” she looked at her pager, and then to Arizona, the disappointment clear in her eyes.
“Go save lives,” Arizona said, pulling Callie in for another kiss. “I’ve got some time before rounds. I’ll leave a coffee in your locker.”
“You’re amazing. Do I tell you that enough? Because you are,” Callie grinned.
“Probably but I’ll never get tired of hearing it,” Arizona smirked, straightening out her scrub top and lab coat. She couldn’t leave an on-call room looking disheveled. That was just fuel for the rumor mill.
Callie moved towards the door, but she turned back once more, pulling Arizona in for another kiss. “One for the road. Might be a while before I get to do that again.”
Arizona nodded. “Hopefully little miss will go to bed early.”
“I’ll take her to the park after school to tire her out.” Callie opened the door. Her demeanor instantly changed. “I thought you said that you didn’t want Sofia to try horseback riding until she was older? And now you go and sign her up without consulting me?”
“She needs activities,” Arizona exaggeratedly rolled her eyes. “It’s not my fault you moved her back a month into the sports season. What sort of options are there now?”
“I have to go,” Callie huffed, walking away.
Arizona made her way up to the coffee cart, pulling out her phone as she waited in line.
There was a text from Callie.
Have a great day, beautiful. Save the tiny humans and their makers, and then come home to me.
Arizona bit her lip to conceal her smile.
This was sort of fun. Arizona was apparently a good actress. Not as good as Callie, but believable enough. They had people convinced they hadn’t been dating for the past six weeks.
On the other hand, Arizona hated lying to her friends. And Sofia. Especially Sofia. But how do you tell a nine-year-old that her mommies changed their relationship status from bitterly divorced to it’s complicated but we’re happy ?
“Hi,” April said, coming up beside Arizona. “It sounds like you and Callie are having some trouble.” The redhead winced sympathetically.
“Did everyone hear that?” Arizona asked, looking around the hallway. There were a few people staring.
April nodded. “It’s par for the course. I didn’t realize how hard co-parenting was until Harriet. Jackson and I fight like that all the time.”
Arizona nodded. “I get it. I’m happy they’re back– I mean, that Sofia’s back. It’s just been tough.”
That wasn’t a complete lie. It hadn’t been the smoothest transition at the start. There were about three weeks of tiptoeing around each other at Arizona’s house before anything even remotely romantic happened. They’d agreed that it would be confusing for Sofia to spend her time with Callie at a hotel or at Meredith’s, so Callie moved into Arizona’s guest bedroom until she found her own place. It was supposed to be temporary, but, then again, they also were supposedly single.
Now, however, Callie’s house hunting had come to a screeching halt and Callie spent her nights tip-toeing tip-toed down the hall to climb into bed with Arizona. Callie set an alarm for 5AM without fail, when she would go back into the guest bedroom so she’d be there when Sofia woke up. It was working well, except for that one time Sofia had a nightmare and came into Arizona’s room. Thankfully, the little girl walked like an elephant, so they had time to stage it like Callie had been helping Arizona with her leg, and Sofia didn’t question it.
But 10PM to 5AM and scattered moments in an on-call room were frustrating. Arizona wanted to be with Callie. She wanted to be with Callie every waking minute, really, as pathetic as that sounded. After years apart, Arizona didn’t want to miss another second.
On the other hand, she and Callie would need to tell Sofia before they told anyone else, and, in order to do that, they needed to figure out what they were doing and where this relationship was going. Their daughter had enough instability in the past few years, and she didn’t need to struggle through her mothers’ indecision any further. Plus, it might be good for them to stay out of the rumor mill.
XXX
Callie, having retrieved the coffee Arizona promised from her locker, slid down the cardboard coffee sleeve, smiling at the familiar pink script beneath it. It was like they were kids again, secretly passing notes.
Hi, Pretty Lady.
Thinking of you. My patients (and I) sure are glad that this badass Ortho rockstar is kicking ass at GSM again. I’m the most glad. Or gladest? You get the picture. See you tonight.
xoxoxo
“Ooooh! Who’s sending you flirty notes?” Meredith came up behind Callie.
Callie jolted, pulling the coffee sleeve over Arizona’s note. Callie steadied herself and shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage, trying to wipe any remnants of that unmistakable lovesick grin from her face. “Oh, just a barista. She gave me her number.”
“Are you going to call her?” Meredith asked, grabbing her scrub cap and opening a granola bar.
Callie bit her lip. “Probably not.”
“Why not?” Meredith asked, taking a bite.
What was Callie supposed to say? That she and her ex-wife were in love again?
Were they in love again? Callie certainly loved Arizona. She’d never stopped. It just took Callie some time apart to realize that all she’d ever wanted in life was Arizona Robbins.
And Arizona sacrificed so much to let her move Sofia across the country because she thought it’d make Callie happy. But a lot had transpired since. Callie wouldn’t blame Arizona if she had reservations. Not after all that Callie had put her through. She deeply regretted everything that transpired in the custody battle. Had Arizona forgiven her for that? Were the terrible things Callie did even forgivable?
Then again, Callie had forgiven Arizona for cheating, something generally regarded as pretty darn unforgivable.
Neither of them were saints in their long-winding love story which Callie hoped was leading up to their happy ending.
“I don’t know if I’m ready to date again. I’m focusing on my family,” Callie explained.
“You can do that and date,” Meredith countered, throwing the Nature Valley wrapper in the trash. “You and Blake have been over for how long now? Four months?”
“Oh, that was over before it started.” Callie grabbed her scrub cap with a dry laugh. The entire situation with Penny was tragically laughable. “We didn’t even finish moving in together in Manhattan.”
“Speaking of, uh, ...relationships, Robbins is going to be keeping an eye on the patient in the OR. You know, with a pregnant lady and an MVC, you can never be too careful.” Meredith’s voice was tinged with caution and warning.
Meredith probably was worried that Callie and Arizona would be at each other’s throats. Pretending to be fighting constantly was how they’d been flying under the radar for six weeks at this point. That must have been a Grey-Sloan record.
But Callie was troubled by Meredith’s comment for a wholly different reason. Callie’s heart sank. She knew Arizona still felt so much guilt for the circumstances of Sofia’s birth. Callie assured her time and time again that it wasn’t her fault, but everytime Sofia got a cold or Callie had a backache from standing for too long in the OR, Arizona rushed to blame it on the trauma Arizona was completely convinced she’d caused.
So, naturally, Arizona would want to save each and every baby who was born like Sofia. Why had Callie been so tough on her about that fellowship? She bit her lip. Arizona was perfect. Why couldn’t Callie have seen that then?
“Callie? Is that okay?” Meredith asked. “Are you guys going to be able to keep things civil?”
“Oh, sorry!” Callie looked at Meredith. “Yeah, I think we’ll be fine.”
“I only mention it because I know living together must be wearing on you guys.” Meredith was proceeding with caution. “I’ve heard you’re not having the easiest time adjusting.”
Callie shrugged. “We’re both professionals. We’ll be fine.”
Callie desperately wished she could say more. She wished she could shout from the rooftops that she loved Arizona Robbins and Arizona Robbins loved her (hopefully) and that none of the rest of it mattered. Callie wanted to share her joy with the world. She especially hated keeping it from her closest friends, but before Callie could tell anyone, she and Arizona needed to figure out what to tell Sofia and how to break the news to her.
Sofia was bound to have a lot of feelings about it. At nine years old, she had a lot of feelings about everything, but this was bound to be a big change. Sofia’s entire paradigm would shift. As heartbreaking as it was to think of, there was a decent chance Sofia didn’t remember her mothers together. She wasn’t even four when they’d signed the divorce papers, or the dissolution of domestic partnership paperwork, as it were. She probably never knew anything other than having two divorced mothers.
Callie did have reservations about being in the OR with Arizona. Not that she’d be uncomfortable or there’d be tension, but more that they’d let on that their relationship had shifted. It was hard to hide things under scrutinizing eyes in such a small room. Especially when Arizona’s smile made Callie weak at the knees.
But to be fair, that smile always had that effect on her, together or not.
XXX
“Dr. Robbins,” Callie said, coming up to stand next to Arizona, scrubbing in.
“Dr. Torres,” Arizona nodded curtly, continuing to scrub her hands.
Meredith smiled at them both as she made her way out of the scrub room and into the OR.
Arizona was very glad she was wearing a mask because her grin was mile-wide. “Go be a rockstar,” Arizona said quietly, so only Callie could hear, bumping Callie with her hip as she made her way into the OR.
Arizona turned back to see Callie staring at her. Or, more accurately, her backside. Arizona tossed a glare in Callie’s direction which was matched with a shrug and what was undoubtedly an impish grin under her mask.
Just a touch more audible than Arizona would have liked, Callie voiced her appreciation. “That ass does not quit.”
Arizona glanced over to Meredith, who, thankfully, was oblivious.
Callie met them in the OR moments later, a gown being tied around her and gloves pulled tightly onto her hands. “Who’s ready to watch me be a rockstar?”
Arizona rolled her eyes, mostly for show, but beneath the mask she was still grinning. God, she loved Callie’s confidence.
XXX
Once Sofia was asleep, like clockwork, Callie padded into Arizona’s room. She shut the door behind her, and slid onto the vacant side of the bed – her side.
Arizona was sitting under the covers, reading the latest issue of The Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine , her golden hair resting on top of her head in a messy bun. Arizona was, quite simply, adorable .
Callie leaned her head against a fair, freckled shoulder, bare aside from the strap of her nightgown. She pressed a kiss to Arizona’s skin before taking a deep breath. Callie finally, for the first time in years, felt at home. But was this home? Was this going to last?
“What are we doing?” Callie’s voice was uncertain. She was happy and she wasn’t sure she wanted that question answered. However, at some point someone needed to pop that pretty pink bubble the two of them had been floating along in.
Arizona set the journal down on the nightstand, grabbing one of Callie’s hands and twining their fingers. God, she loved those hands. She’d missed them. “I don’t know. What do you want us to be doing?”
Arizona could feel Callie’s entire body grow tense. “I don’t get to make that call. I was the one who walked away. I asked for the divorce. I just– I’m going to be glad you took me back and defer to you on that one.”
“Calliope,” Arizona said softly, “that’s crazy. I– I wanted you back, of course I did, I wanted you back all the time , but I wanted you to be happy more than anything. If I wasn’t making you happy, I wanted someone else to. You deserve all the happiness in the world.”
Callie brought Arizona’s hand up to her lips, pressing a kiss to it. “You have an unbelievably kind soul. I know you don’t believe in all of this, but I believe God has a plan. I think I needed to let everything go to remember what I needed in life. I need you. I need Sofia and you. I guess you lost a leg and realized that. I had to lose the love of my life for a little while.” Callie picked at the bedsheet with her free hand.
“I’m the love of your life?” Arizona asked.
Callie looked up, meeting ocean blue eyes. “Yeah,” she said softly. “You are.”
“I love you, too.” Arizona smiled so wide it hurt. It was always true, but she hadn’t gotten to tell Callie that in years. She felt something inside her relax. A stress she didn’t know she’d been carrying. “And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Whatever that means. If you want a wedding again, I’ll be there in a dress, ready to take vows that I won’t break this time. And if you just want to be together – be girlfriends, or partners, or whatever, – I’m good with that, too. And if you want to move somewhere and start over or have nine more smushy, adorable babies, we’ll do that. I just want to be with you. Whatever that means.”
Callie had tears in her eyes. “Yeah?”
Arizona nodded, biting her lip. “You’re it for me. You’ve always been.”
“So I guess we should tell Sof?” Callie asked.
“Probably,” Arizona said. “Though I’m really not sure how I’ll explain this to her.”
“We’ll figure it out together,” Callie said. “We always do.”
Things were silent for a moment, but there was no tension. Just an overwhelming sense of peace. Close and content. Everything had finally fallen into place.
“You’d really want more kids? After everything?” Callie asked.
“I promised you ten, didn’t I?” Arizona grinned.
Callie opened her mouth but quickly closed it again. She was silent for a beat, before “marry me?” She asked softly.
Callie was certain she’d never witnessed a more enthusiastic yes as Arizona flipped over and tackled her onto the mattress, laughing.