Fault Lines (23/36)
Fault Lines
Chapter 23/36
Authors: Faith kennedysbitch & Kye kye9
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Mark/Lexie
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer
Story Summary: Sequel to Choices. Callie and Arizona make the decision to move forward with their lives, but when a gradual series of events begin to snowball, Arizona tries desperately not to lose her grip on reality.
Chapter Summary: The fate of Daniel Robbins becomes clear and Arizona reveals something to her mom.
Previous Chapters
A/N: Beta’d by roughian, who is the mob boss of all betas in this community. Seriously.
A/N: Because this series started way before Mrs. Robbins was ever Barbara Robbins, we’ve just decided to stick with what we named her originally, Maria (because going back and changing two full stories worth of material is tedious and I don’t wanna). But the casting of Arizona’s mom this past season was so perfect, she’s still the same woman/actress here, just with a different name.
---
Arizona sat in stony silence between her mom and Callie for what felt like hours. She couldn’t muster up enough energy to talk, so the odd time Teddy or Cristina came out to give them a quick update she just listened while her mother did most of the communicating.
Hahn never emerged herself. She was in there saving the Colonel’s life and that was all that really mattered. Most of Arizona’s interaction with her thus far had been on a strictly professional level in regard to her father’s care, and any time they found themselves stuck in an awkward conversational lull, one or both of them dispersed in a hurry.
Callie’s ex and current girlfriend didn’t really have much in common aside from ‘Hey, I used to stick it to the person you’re sticking it to now’. And Arizona did not want to think about anyone ‘sticking’ anything to Calliope other than herself, thank you very much.
Ex of her girlfriend’s or not, Erica Hahn was in there trying to save her father’s life and Arizona was grateful. The first of so many stages were riding on this one surgery and combining Erica’s exceptional record with Teddy’s, she couldn’t have hand-picked a better surgical team to carry this out.
If the Colonel was going to make it, they were by far his best chance.
The six hour mark passed. Arizona started to worry until Cristina came out just long enough to say things were going smoothly and they were being thorough. She quickly disappeared again, no doubt eager to get her cardio-hungry paws on the Colonel’s new heart.
For once, Arizona was glad Cristina was a surgical shark. She wouldn’t want any other resident in there with the two attendings.
Ten minutes after Cristina’s last check in, the three parties had fallen into a coexisting silence. Mrs. Robbins tried to keep things upbeat for the first few hours but by this point even she was too stressed to say much. Callie remained the rock she always was and held Arizona’s hand from the moment she arrived until now.
Arizona was settled against her girlfriend’s shoulder, resting her cheek against navy blue scrubs while staring absently at the floor. “What time is it?” she murmured quietly, forgetting that she was wearing a watch.
Callie twisted their clasped hands to look at the blonde’s wrist. “It’s-”
Arizona’s stomach released a loud, gurgling rumble next to her.
The corners of Callie’s mouth twitched into a grin. “-apparently time for you to have a snack.”
Lifting her head for the first time in what felt like hours, Arizona grimaced as she felt another sharp hunger pain in her gut. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten; food just seemed irrelevant up until this point.
“Did you not eat the chicken salad I brought you this afternoon?” Callie asked with a suspiciously raised eyebrow. She knew her girlfriend a little too well.
Arizona managed to look just a tiny bit guilty. “I nibbled. Stomach wasn’t really feeling up to housing anything.” She’d been too queasy to eat earlier, even before Teddy told her about her dad’s heart. Apparently her body was finally out of fuel and didn’t care about her stress levels anymore.
“Honey,” Maria Robbins chided. “Ever since you were a child you’d run yourself into the ground before remembering you needed to eat something. If I didn’t force feed you the odd time you came inside the house, you’d have wasted away years ago.”
Arizona shrugged while Callie chuckled. “She hasn’t changed,” she pointed out, nudging Arizona playfully with an elbow. “I’d worry about her being anorexic if I hadn’t seen her devour an entire pizza in one sitting.”
“Yeah, that’s a story I want you telling my mother,” Arizona muttered sheepishly, remembering that a lot of beer had been involved in that instance.
Callie squeezed her girlfriend’s hand and gazed into azure eyes. “Let me run and get you something,” she offered, pressing a kiss to the back of Arizona’s knuckles before slowly standing up. “I think I smelled chicken soup when I passed the cafeteria earlier.”
Her frown deepened as she studied Arizona’s worn down features. There were lines drawn in her face, worry lines that hadn’t existed until seven or eight months ago when all of this started.
“Maybe you can at least keep that down?” she asked tentatively.
Arizona was reluctant to let Callie go but nodded anyway, mustering up a weak smile for her girlfriend’s sake. “I’ll try.”
“Don’t make me pull the airplane noises out,” Callie added with a lopsided grin. “I had a baby sister; I’m well practiced and not afraid to use ‘em. But I warn you, with soup it might get kinda messy.”
That caused Arizona to crack a smile for the first time all day with the thought of Calliope trying to feed her like a two-year-old. “I dare you,” she laughed, squeezing the hand within her own one more time. “Hurry back?”
Even though the blonde tried to hide the vulnerability behind her words, Callie heard it clear as day. “You know I will.” She reluctantly dropped Arizona’s hand and headed for the cafeteria.
Maria watched Callie wander off, then shifted her focus to her daughter. It made her smile when she saw the way Arizona gazed adoringly after the other woman, the beginnings of a true smile playing at the corners of her lips. “I really like that girl,” she commented.
Arizona couldn’t tear her eyes away until Callie rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. “Me too,” she whispered softly.
Maria shifted in her seat and settled back more comfortably. “She’s much better than that wretched Joanne,” she added. “Now there was a sociopath if I ever saw one.”
“Mom!” Arizona protested, a little shocked. “Jeeze, where did that come from? I dated her for two years and you never said anything.”
“That’s because I didn’t want to make you mad, dear,” Mrs. Robbins pointed out lightly, patting her daughter on the knee. “If I told you I didn’t like her because she was a horrid, manipulative, vapid slip of a girl, you’d have dated her for two more just to spite me.”
Arizona let out a bark of laughter. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“You know it’s true,” Maria countered. “Remember Margaret? Your father and I didn’t even want her in the house ever again when you brought her home for Thanksgiving during your second year of medical school. We could tell you were miserable and yet you still stayed with her for another six months just because Daniel demanded you find someone covered with less tattoos before Christmas.”
“Ugh,” Arizona groaned, wincing. “Now she was a head case, I’ll give you that. Blame it on all the weed I smoked in college.”
For a moment, Mrs. Robbins was speechless.
It was Arizona’s turn to grin triumphantly. “Kidding, mother.”
Maria scoffed and swatted her on the thigh. “Oh, you.”
Arizona snickered and crossed her legs. “I hope the point of this conversation isn’t that I have terrible taste in women. Not sure if my ego can handle it right now.”
“I wouldn’t say terrible, though both you and your brother had your fair share of mishaps,” the older woman mused. “But I was only trying to say that I’m happy for you this time. Calliope is a wonderful woman and it means the world to your father and I to see you this happy. I just know you two have another fifty years of joy in front of you, much like we’ve been blessed with.”
Arizona saw her mother’s eyes get a bit misty and reached over to take her hand. “Daddy will be okay. He’s too stubborn to let go.”
Maria nodded mutely.
They lapsed into a comfortable silence, both too exhausted to contemplate out loud what would happen if the Colonel didn’t make it through this surgery. Arizona had no idea what her mother would do; they’d been married for forty-nine years, even since they were seventeen and nineteen years old. She thought of her parents as one of the lucky few that really did find their soulmate on the first try. Even with the Colonel deployed overseas for a good portion of their lives, the marriage had stayed strong throughout.
Arizona wanted that. She knew she’d found it, too.
Her eyes were automatically drawn across the waiting area the moment Callie reappeared. She was holding a stack of styrofoam containers in one hand while detouring over to the coffee cart in the hall. As Arizona watched, her girlfriend paid for and received an extra-large mocha (her usual) with a pile of whipped cream on top. There was a brief exchange between the barista and doctor, after which another swirl of the white stuff was added to the growing mountain. It now resembled more of an ice cream cone than a hot drink.
Watching, Arizona found herself completely enthralled with the way Callie smiled at the coffee cart girl, the infectious laughter that drifted over to her ears, the friendly bounce in Callie’s step as she turned while balancing an armload of goodies. All of it made the blonde feel giddy inside. Callie had let her hair down again and dark, gorgeous locks spilled across her back and shoulders, taking Arizona’s breath away with a single glimpse.
She was such a sucker for this woman.
Callie looked like a kid in a candy store as she held the coffee cup in her right hand and lapped at the whipped cream like it was something she’d been waiting for all day. Her focus was entirely on the drink until a passing doctor in the hall called out her name. Callie twisted her head around to return the greeting, not paying attention to where she was walking.
She turned back around, already going in for another eager lick of her tasty treat, and slammed into a man just heading for the exit. Arizona grimaced and watched as the topping and a good portion of mocha splashed out all over the floor and the man’s shoes. Somehow Callie managed to retain her hold on the styrofoam soup and sandwich containers, avoiding a total disaster.
The man apologized profusely as Callie did the same, and once both parties were deemed unharmed, he hurried on his way. The brunette stood in place and stared down into her half-empty drink with the most disheartened expression Arizona had ever seen. Brown eyes glanced from the paper cup to the floor, where the remnants of her topping and a quarter of mocha soaked through the waiting room carpet. There was a splotch of cream dabbed on the very tip of her nose that she didn’t notice at first, until it eventually itched and she scrunched up her face in displeasure.
Swiping the back of her hand across her nose, Callie’s shoulders sagged and she hung her head, pivoting on her heels and marching right back over to the coffee cart for a refill.
That one simple, dorky little moment made Arizona feel more love for Calliope Torres than she’d ever felt before. She couldn’t keep a wide grin from forming as she shook her head in awed disbelief.
“I’m gonna marry that girl.”
Maria’s gaze snapped up from where it was trained on the floor to stare at her daughter.
“I mean, it’s not legal here in Washington,” Arizona amended, suddenly feeling as though mutant butterflies had burst forth in her stomach. She stared down at her hands and fiddled with them in her lap. “But honestly? I don’t care. Marry, commit, partnership, whatever they claim it is, I want to be able to call her my wife.”
She bit her bottom lip and glanced tentatively over at her mother. “What do you think?”
A slow smile appeared and Maria’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, sweetie, I think that’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard.” She leaned over the armrests and pulled Arizona into the tightest hug she could manage.
Arizona beamed and hugged her mother right back.
“You are so lucky to have found each other,” Mrs. Robbins murmured. “Just like me and my Danny.”
Arizona squeezed her eyes tightly shut and nodded rapidly, trying to hold back the well of tears suddenly threatening to spill over.
“He’ll be there to walk you down the aisle,” Maria whispered into Arizona’s shoulder. “I know he will.”
“And he’ll be there to see his granddaughter,” Arizona confirmed as she felt a hot tear splash against her skin. She’d only ever seen her mother cry three times in her entire life and it broke her heart to see it happen again now.
Arizona knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Callie was the one with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. While having a baby together pretty much said the brunette was on the same page, pre-proposal eagle wings swooped into her belly to join the mutant butterflies. Together they made her feel even more nervous and light-headed than she had been before.
Something told her this would be a busy week, no matter what the outcome was.
***
“Hey.”
Mark looked up from watching Deadliest Catch on the living room sofa to his very pregnant fiancée standing in the doorway of their bedroom. “Hey.”
“You’re not coming to bed?” Lexie asked tentatively, eyeing the pillow and blankets Mark had piled on the end cushion.
He shrugged, looking away from those expressive brown eyes rather quickly. He still didn’t know whether to feel ashamed or hurt over the huge altercation from earlier today. “You were out like a light when I got home and I didn’t want to wake you. Plus I’m waiting for a text message from Torres. Robbins’ dad got a heart today; he’s in surgery right now.”
Lexie padded over to the couch, sitting down but keeping a few inches of space between them. “Wow, that’s amazing. Do they think he’s gonna be okay?”
“Won’t know for a bit,” Mark replied, fighting the urge to wrap his arms around Lexie and pull her in close. “She said she’ll let me know as soon as Hahn comes out with news.”
Awkward silence followed. Lexie stared at her lap and twiddled her thumbs. “About earlier-”
“I’m sorry, okay?” Mark cut in. “I’m sorry for the whole damn thing with Kyla. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“I know,” Lexie replied lightly. “But you did.”
“I miss you.” Mark kept his gaze trained on Lexie even when she refused to look at him. “I’ve tried being patient and the last thing I want to do is make you think I’m harassing you for sex, because that’s not it. I miss you, Lex. All of you.”
Brown eyes lifted from the floor to finally meet his.
“I know you’re going through a lot right now, with your arm and carrying our boy around. And I’m here for you. Lately it just feels like you’d rather need everyone else but me.”
“Mark, that’s not it,” Lexie argued, sighing in frustration at their lack of communication. “I’m not...me lately, okay? I get that. Since I screwed up my shoulder my moods have been all over the map, my energy has hit rock bottom, and I’ve felt like a human disaster show. Rationally, I know that things like this happen to pregnant women but it’s still frustrating to deal with. I never asked to feel this way.”
Mark watched her with sad eyes. “I love you,” he stated softly.
Lexie sighed again and reached over to take his hand. “I love you, too.” She laced their fingers together. “Please come to bed. I can’t sleep without you next to me.”
Those were the first words that ignited hope within Mark in months. He stood up and pulled his pregnant girlfriend to her feet, tucking a lock of brown hair behind her ear and stroking her cheek. “Lead the way.”
Turning her face to kiss his palm, Lexie tugged him in the direction of their bedroom.
***
“Here comes the plane,” Callie cooed, holding up a soup spoon brimming with chicken noodle broth and slowly swaying it from side to side. “Brrrr, shoooom! Open up, coming in for a landing!”
Arizona tilted her head to the side and arched an unamused eyebrow, staring at her girlfriend while both arms remained stubbornly crossed over her chest.
Callie grinned before dropping the spoon back in the bowl and setting it down on the small table in front of them. “Whatever. Eat or starve; can’t say I didn’t try.”
She picked up her own container and produced a greasy piece of pizza from inside, groaning happily as she lifted it to her waiting mouth.
Arizona stuck her bottom lip out in a huffy pout, eyeballing Callie’s meal with envy. “How come I get soup and you get yummy, yummy pizza?”
“Because I’m pregnant and don’t have to worry about it going straight to my ass since I’m screwed anyway,” Callie said bluntly before biting into the slice of pepperoni with pickles, mushrooms and pineapple.
Arizona grunted unhappily and leaned forward to pick up her bowl. A greasy ball sitting in the pit of her stomach wouldn’t exactly do her any favours, so this was as good as it was going to get. Relaxing back in her chair, she scrunched her nose and poked at the floating chunks of chicken and vegetables that looked less than appealing. She was too hungry to pass it up, though, and took a tentative sip.
They were alone for now, Arizona’s mother having gone to stretch her legs with a quick stroll. She probably knew this place just as well as her daughter did at this point, having spent the last few months practically living in it with the Colonel.
In a way, sitting there with Callie allowed Arizona to pretend just for a moment that they were on their lunch break, spending time together at work like they always did and not waiting to hear whether her father’s transplant surgery was a success. She watched Callie munch away hungrily on her oddly topped pizza while taking a few sips of mediocre soup. Blue eyes flickered across the brunette’s body, settling on the very slight bump poking out from beneath her scrubs.
Callie caught the blonde staring and stopped mid-chew. “Whaf?” she mumbled through a mouthful of food.
Shrugging, Arizona lifted the spoon to her lips again. “Nothing. Just...you’re beautiful when you’re pregnant. You can scoff all you want but I mean it.” Her smile brightened even more. “And you’ll continue to look beautiful when you’re really, really pregnant.”
Callie turned to Arizona with the pizza slice hanging halfway from her mouth and a sharp glare fixed in place. “Funny, I didn’t know I wasn’t ‘really’ pregnant yet.”
Arizona backtracked. “No, that’s not what I m-”
“Or do you mean when I’m really fat? Or is it fater than I am now?”
Arizona’s eyes widened in an instant.
Crap.
“Um, that’s not what I - no, not at all,” she said hastily, stumbling over her words. “Not at all. I didn’t say that.”
Callie dropped the pizza to her lap and glared some more.
The blonde held up both hands in a submissive gesture. “I-I just meant that you’re always snarking at me whenever I say how gorgeous you are, like you don’t believe me. But you are - really gorgeous. And I meant, y’know, even though you keep griping about how in three months time you’re gonna sink the ship, I know better.”
“So now you’re smarter than me?” Callie shot back incredulously.
Oh, hell. Arizona suddenly wished she hadn’t started talking in the first place. Maybe being silent and depressed was safer than being vocal and wrong in the presence of a pregnant woman.
“I love you,” she added for good measure, flashing that brilliant, dimpled smile of hers.
Callie narrowed her eyes and grunted under her breath. “You’re just lucky you’re a God in bed, Arizona Robbins.”
Arizona blushed and immediately stuffed a piping hot spoonful of soup into her mouth, burning most of her taste buds off.
Callie settled after a minute, though, and nibbled absently at her pizza. “Your mom told me Robbins babies tend to come out big. Like, really big. She said for twins, you and your brother were monstrous.”
“We were not,” Arizona scoffed, shaking her head. “‘Monstrous’; God, that woman. We were two healthy babies carried to full term, something that doesn’t happen very often with twins. Combined we were around sixteen pounds.”
“Sixteen?” Callie stared at her partner in disbelief. “Holy shit, Arizona. Equate that to a single baby not fighting for space a-and that’s like, like...you’ve implanted me with a twelve pound human being!”
“Oh come on,” Arizona laughed, reaching her right hand over to rub Callie’s belly again. “Baby Robbins is of normal size and will by no means be twelve pounds. Besides, my brother weighed more than I did. Boys are stupid, which is why we’re having a girl.”
“If I have a twelve pound baby, I’m going to kill you.”
“If we have a twelve pound baby, you’ll be getting a C-section.”
Callie’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull. “Not. Helping.”
“Calliope, our little girl won’t be twelve pounds,” Arizona assured her, keeping her hand in place. “She’ll be a normal size, I promise. All you have to worry about it taking it easy so she’s born healthy and on time, not in the middle of you replacing some old guy’s hip because you worked yourself into labor.”
“I’m pregnant, not an invalid,” Callie pointed out. “I can still work.”
“I know you can,” Arizona agreed, “but I’m still looking forward to the day you officially go on maternity leave. You deserve time off and the papa bear in me will rest easier.”
Callie snorted, glancing sideways at her partner and producing a wry grin. “Arizona Robbins, take it easy? Those two things don’t co-exist in the same universe. You’re like the Energizer Bunny on steroids.”
Arizona pouted again. “Am not,” she grumbled under her breath, poking at her soup once more.
Suddenly Callie couldn’t picture anything other than her girlfriend running around with a pink bunny suit on, smacking a bass drum and ordering her interns to ‘keep going’. Well aware that it wasn’t something the blonde would appreciate very much, she snickered to herself and kept quiet.
The pizza disappeared a few minutes later and Callie looked over to see how Arizona was doing on the soup. The styrofoam bowl was still more than half full and Arizona had taken to staring down into the liquid with a furrowed brow and darkened expression.
Sighing, Callie reached over and took it from her, setting it aside before turning back and taking her girlfriend’s hands. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?”
Arizona lifted her eyes to meet Callie’s and shrugged. “Seven. Maybe six-and-a-half. It’s been worse.”
“It’s also been better,” Callie pointed out lightly, lifting their hands and lightly kissing her partner’s. “Can I do anything?”
“You’re already doing it,” Arizona said earnestly, leaning over and pressing a soft kiss to Callie’s irresistible lips. “Thank you.”
Smiling, the brunette dropped their clasped hands and slipped an arm around Arizona’s shoulders, tugging her closer. The pediatric surgeon melted into the embrace and once more replaced her head on Callie’s shoulder, snuggling in the best she could. Callie’s free hand played with hers, lightly massaging her fingers.
“You didn’t get any sleep earlier, did you?”
“Nope,” Arizona sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted all over again while her eyelids drooped. “I got paged by OB and it took a while. Oh, hey, Addison says to call her.”
“You talked to Addy?”
“Yeah, we needed her help with the case. She says hi. And that if you don’t call her, Santa will be sending you a lump of coal in the mail this year.”
Callie chuckled to herself. “Guess I’ll just have to do that, then.” She wouldn’t put it past Addison to do such a thing just to prove her point.
Arizona lapsed back into a tired silence, resting comfortably against the other woman yet too afraid to close her eyes and nod off. They were due for another update any time now and the surgery itself could even be finished by then.
She had to keep reminding herself that a longer surgery was better than a shorter one. No news was better than bad news. If no one had come to talk to them yet, that meant her dad was still here.
“We need to pick a name,” Callie added after a moment. She was trying to keep Arizona from falling back into the Bad Place and knew the only foolproof subject these days was their tiny human.
“Do we really need to pick one out already?” Arizona’s hand moved down to rest on her girlfriend’s belly again. “I’d kinda like to meet her first. Don’t wanna decide on something like Francine only to have her come out looking like a Georgia.”
“Okay, first off, neither of those names are even being considered,” Callie laughed. “Second, I don’t mean we have to firmly decide on one right now, but I would like to narrow it down a little.”
“You mean narrow it down from ‘Calliope’s List of Top Twenty-Five Names’? The one you stuck to the fridge that changes every other day?”
“That would be the one, yes.”
“What if I like Francine?”
“No.”
Arizona smirked and drew little circles over Baby Torres with her fingertips. “We both have our favourites that we’ve talked about. I’d still like to meet her before really deciding on anything, though.”
Callie tightened the arm she had around Arizona’s shoulders. “So for the first twenty-four hours she’ll just be ‘Hey, you’? Isn’t that a little cliché?”
“Sweetie, she’ll be an eating, pooping and sleeping machine for the first day. I doubt she’d notice if we called her Bubbles.”
“I am not even temporarily naming our daughter after the stripper Mark bought you for your birthday.”
Arizona snorted. “Her name was not Bubbles. What kinda stripper name would that be?”
“It was so Bubbles. I remember because I specifically stated what a crappy stripper name it was out loud and pissed her off.”
“Whatever, girl-who-got-dry-humped-by-Glitter. You totally enjoyed the lap dance more than I did and you know it.”
Callie would never stop amusing herself over the memories of Arizona’s birthday shenanigans at ‘Déjà Vu Showgirls’ downtown. She was one-hundred percent certain that she and Mark would’ve never convinced white-bread Robbins to go to a strip club if they hadn’t gotten her drunk at Joe’s first. Mark and Teddy had been the only other two willing to go with them back then. The rest was history that both women only semi-remembered.
Arizona was still laughing over the incoherent and ridiculous memories of that night moments later when her mother returned to the waiting area. Both she and Callie shut up and tried to stifle their laughter, not too keen on divulging the reason behind their hysterics.
Callie loved Mrs. Robbins but she did not want her knowing she’d taken her daughter to a strip club for her last birthday. Some things were just better left unsaid to in-laws.
Small talk ruled from there on out, with exhaustion slowly creeping up on Arizona and beginning to win out over the urge to stay alert. She must have actually drifted off at some point because suddenly Callie was shaking her awake and urging her to pay attention.
“Hm?” Arizona lifted her head from her girlfriend’s shoulder and blinked sleepily, feeling a little discombobulated.
“Zona,” Callie said urgently, nudging her again and standing up.
Suddenly Arizona remembered where she was and looked over to see Erica Hahn approaching. Heart in her throat, she leapt to her feet and immediately linked arms with her mother. Hahn’s face was impossible to read from here.
Erica waited until she was in front of them before she started speaking. “It was touch and go there for a while but his new heart is in and he’s on his way to recovery.”
Callie thanked God that her ex had finally learned how to get straight to the point.
“He’s okay?” Maria asked, voice strained.
“For now, yes, Daniel is okay. He made it through the surgery and his new heart is working perfectly. It’s still a waiting game to see how well he takes to it and the recovery process will be long, but he’s doing good for now.”
“Oh thank God,” Mrs. Robbins cried, placing a hand over her mouth as she was suddenly overcome with relief. “Thank you, Dr. Hahn, thank you.”
Arizona was still speechless and a little numb as she pulled her mom into a hard hug. “He’s okay,” she croaked. “He’s gonna be okay.”
“Your father’s stubborn streak came in handy this time,” Maria joked weakly, sniffling a few times. She released her daughter and immediately pulled her husband’s surgeon into a hug.
Callie grinned. Erica awkwardly patted Maria on the back and waited to be let go. Some things would never change.
Arizona still felt like she was in a trance, as though she didn’t know if she was allowed to be relieved yet or not. They’d all been waiting for this moment and yet it seemed completely surreal while it was happening. Maybe she was still sleeping.
A hand resting on the small of her back brought her back to reality in an instant. She looked over to find Callie’s gorgeous brown eyes watching her, a careful smile aimed her way.
“See? Told you,” Callie said, rubbing a hand soothingly along the back of Arizona’s scrubs.
Arizona finally managed a smile of her own, lingering on Callie before focusing her attention on Dr. Hahn. “Thank you,” she stated sincerely, wishing there was more she could say but finding herself rather speechless. “I-I just...thank you, Erica.”
Erica nodded in response and glanced from Callie to Arizona again. “Yang will be able to tell you what ICU room he’s in once he’s out of recovery. I’ll check in once he’s there and be able to update you a little more. But right now he’s doing fine, so you can all rest easy.”
Those words finally seemed to sink in for Arizona as Hahn turned and left them alone to celebrate. She stared at Callie, speechless, and laughed because she didn’t know what else to say or do.
“I have to call your Aunt Shelly, she’ll be so relieved,” Maria spoke up, fumbling for the cell phone in her purse. She headed off towards the main doors to make the call outside.
Left alone, Arizona turned to her lover and stared, clearly still in some level of shock.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Callie whispered to her as she wrapped her in her arms. “Just breathe.”
Arizona closed her eyes and held on tightly, bunching the brunette’s scrubs in both fists. She was so overwhelmed with a mixture of relief, shock, and disbelief that she didn’t know what to say. So she just let Callie hug her and melted into the embrace.
Callie buried her face into the crook of Arizona’s neck, breathing her in as she felt the tension drain from her partner’s body. For a moment she was worried the blonde would pass out in her arms and tightened her grip.
“I love you,” Callie whispered, dropping a light kiss to the smooth skin beneath her lips.
Arizona closed her eyes and took in a shuddering breath. “Love you, too,” she croaked, arms tightening around Callie’s waist.
For the first time in what felt like forever, Arizona realized like she might finally be able to get some sleep that night.
---
Chapter 23/36
Authors: Faith kennedysbitch & Kye kye9
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Mark/Lexie
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer
Story Summary: Sequel to Choices. Callie and Arizona make the decision to move forward with their lives, but when a gradual series of events begin to snowball, Arizona tries desperately not to lose her grip on reality.
Chapter Summary: The fate of Daniel Robbins becomes clear and Arizona reveals something to her mom.
Previous Chapters
A/N: Beta’d by roughian, who is the mob boss of all betas in this community. Seriously.
A/N: Because this series started way before Mrs. Robbins was ever Barbara Robbins, we’ve just decided to stick with what we named her originally, Maria (because going back and changing two full stories worth of material is tedious and I don’t wanna). But the casting of Arizona’s mom this past season was so perfect, she’s still the same woman/actress here, just with a different name.
---
Arizona sat in stony silence between her mom and Callie for what felt like hours. She couldn’t muster up enough energy to talk, so the odd time Teddy or Cristina came out to give them a quick update she just listened while her mother did most of the communicating.
Hahn never emerged herself. She was in there saving the Colonel’s life and that was all that really mattered. Most of Arizona’s interaction with her thus far had been on a strictly professional level in regard to her father’s care, and any time they found themselves stuck in an awkward conversational lull, one or both of them dispersed in a hurry.
Callie’s ex and current girlfriend didn’t really have much in common aside from ‘Hey, I used to stick it to the person you’re sticking it to now’. And Arizona did not want to think about anyone ‘sticking’ anything to Calliope other than herself, thank you very much.
Ex of her girlfriend’s or not, Erica Hahn was in there trying to save her father’s life and Arizona was grateful. The first of so many stages were riding on this one surgery and combining Erica’s exceptional record with Teddy’s, she couldn’t have hand-picked a better surgical team to carry this out.
If the Colonel was going to make it, they were by far his best chance.
The six hour mark passed. Arizona started to worry until Cristina came out just long enough to say things were going smoothly and they were being thorough. She quickly disappeared again, no doubt eager to get her cardio-hungry paws on the Colonel’s new heart.
For once, Arizona was glad Cristina was a surgical shark. She wouldn’t want any other resident in there with the two attendings.
Ten minutes after Cristina’s last check in, the three parties had fallen into a coexisting silence. Mrs. Robbins tried to keep things upbeat for the first few hours but by this point even she was too stressed to say much. Callie remained the rock she always was and held Arizona’s hand from the moment she arrived until now.
Arizona was settled against her girlfriend’s shoulder, resting her cheek against navy blue scrubs while staring absently at the floor. “What time is it?” she murmured quietly, forgetting that she was wearing a watch.
Callie twisted their clasped hands to look at the blonde’s wrist. “It’s-”
Arizona’s stomach released a loud, gurgling rumble next to her.
The corners of Callie’s mouth twitched into a grin. “-apparently time for you to have a snack.”
Lifting her head for the first time in what felt like hours, Arizona grimaced as she felt another sharp hunger pain in her gut. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten; food just seemed irrelevant up until this point.
“Did you not eat the chicken salad I brought you this afternoon?” Callie asked with a suspiciously raised eyebrow. She knew her girlfriend a little too well.
Arizona managed to look just a tiny bit guilty. “I nibbled. Stomach wasn’t really feeling up to housing anything.” She’d been too queasy to eat earlier, even before Teddy told her about her dad’s heart. Apparently her body was finally out of fuel and didn’t care about her stress levels anymore.
“Honey,” Maria Robbins chided. “Ever since you were a child you’d run yourself into the ground before remembering you needed to eat something. If I didn’t force feed you the odd time you came inside the house, you’d have wasted away years ago.”
Arizona shrugged while Callie chuckled. “She hasn’t changed,” she pointed out, nudging Arizona playfully with an elbow. “I’d worry about her being anorexic if I hadn’t seen her devour an entire pizza in one sitting.”
“Yeah, that’s a story I want you telling my mother,” Arizona muttered sheepishly, remembering that a lot of beer had been involved in that instance.
Callie squeezed her girlfriend’s hand and gazed into azure eyes. “Let me run and get you something,” she offered, pressing a kiss to the back of Arizona’s knuckles before slowly standing up. “I think I smelled chicken soup when I passed the cafeteria earlier.”
Her frown deepened as she studied Arizona’s worn down features. There were lines drawn in her face, worry lines that hadn’t existed until seven or eight months ago when all of this started.
“Maybe you can at least keep that down?” she asked tentatively.
Arizona was reluctant to let Callie go but nodded anyway, mustering up a weak smile for her girlfriend’s sake. “I’ll try.”
“Don’t make me pull the airplane noises out,” Callie added with a lopsided grin. “I had a baby sister; I’m well practiced and not afraid to use ‘em. But I warn you, with soup it might get kinda messy.”
That caused Arizona to crack a smile for the first time all day with the thought of Calliope trying to feed her like a two-year-old. “I dare you,” she laughed, squeezing the hand within her own one more time. “Hurry back?”
Even though the blonde tried to hide the vulnerability behind her words, Callie heard it clear as day. “You know I will.” She reluctantly dropped Arizona’s hand and headed for the cafeteria.
Maria watched Callie wander off, then shifted her focus to her daughter. It made her smile when she saw the way Arizona gazed adoringly after the other woman, the beginnings of a true smile playing at the corners of her lips. “I really like that girl,” she commented.
Arizona couldn’t tear her eyes away until Callie rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. “Me too,” she whispered softly.
Maria shifted in her seat and settled back more comfortably. “She’s much better than that wretched Joanne,” she added. “Now there was a sociopath if I ever saw one.”
“Mom!” Arizona protested, a little shocked. “Jeeze, where did that come from? I dated her for two years and you never said anything.”
“That’s because I didn’t want to make you mad, dear,” Mrs. Robbins pointed out lightly, patting her daughter on the knee. “If I told you I didn’t like her because she was a horrid, manipulative, vapid slip of a girl, you’d have dated her for two more just to spite me.”
Arizona let out a bark of laughter. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“You know it’s true,” Maria countered. “Remember Margaret? Your father and I didn’t even want her in the house ever again when you brought her home for Thanksgiving during your second year of medical school. We could tell you were miserable and yet you still stayed with her for another six months just because Daniel demanded you find someone covered with less tattoos before Christmas.”
“Ugh,” Arizona groaned, wincing. “Now she was a head case, I’ll give you that. Blame it on all the weed I smoked in college.”
For a moment, Mrs. Robbins was speechless.
It was Arizona’s turn to grin triumphantly. “Kidding, mother.”
Maria scoffed and swatted her on the thigh. “Oh, you.”
Arizona snickered and crossed her legs. “I hope the point of this conversation isn’t that I have terrible taste in women. Not sure if my ego can handle it right now.”
“I wouldn’t say terrible, though both you and your brother had your fair share of mishaps,” the older woman mused. “But I was only trying to say that I’m happy for you this time. Calliope is a wonderful woman and it means the world to your father and I to see you this happy. I just know you two have another fifty years of joy in front of you, much like we’ve been blessed with.”
Arizona saw her mother’s eyes get a bit misty and reached over to take her hand. “Daddy will be okay. He’s too stubborn to let go.”
Maria nodded mutely.
They lapsed into a comfortable silence, both too exhausted to contemplate out loud what would happen if the Colonel didn’t make it through this surgery. Arizona had no idea what her mother would do; they’d been married for forty-nine years, even since they were seventeen and nineteen years old. She thought of her parents as one of the lucky few that really did find their soulmate on the first try. Even with the Colonel deployed overseas for a good portion of their lives, the marriage had stayed strong throughout.
Arizona wanted that. She knew she’d found it, too.
Her eyes were automatically drawn across the waiting area the moment Callie reappeared. She was holding a stack of styrofoam containers in one hand while detouring over to the coffee cart in the hall. As Arizona watched, her girlfriend paid for and received an extra-large mocha (her usual) with a pile of whipped cream on top. There was a brief exchange between the barista and doctor, after which another swirl of the white stuff was added to the growing mountain. It now resembled more of an ice cream cone than a hot drink.
Watching, Arizona found herself completely enthralled with the way Callie smiled at the coffee cart girl, the infectious laughter that drifted over to her ears, the friendly bounce in Callie’s step as she turned while balancing an armload of goodies. All of it made the blonde feel giddy inside. Callie had let her hair down again and dark, gorgeous locks spilled across her back and shoulders, taking Arizona’s breath away with a single glimpse.
She was such a sucker for this woman.
Callie looked like a kid in a candy store as she held the coffee cup in her right hand and lapped at the whipped cream like it was something she’d been waiting for all day. Her focus was entirely on the drink until a passing doctor in the hall called out her name. Callie twisted her head around to return the greeting, not paying attention to where she was walking.
She turned back around, already going in for another eager lick of her tasty treat, and slammed into a man just heading for the exit. Arizona grimaced and watched as the topping and a good portion of mocha splashed out all over the floor and the man’s shoes. Somehow Callie managed to retain her hold on the styrofoam soup and sandwich containers, avoiding a total disaster.
The man apologized profusely as Callie did the same, and once both parties were deemed unharmed, he hurried on his way. The brunette stood in place and stared down into her half-empty drink with the most disheartened expression Arizona had ever seen. Brown eyes glanced from the paper cup to the floor, where the remnants of her topping and a quarter of mocha soaked through the waiting room carpet. There was a splotch of cream dabbed on the very tip of her nose that she didn’t notice at first, until it eventually itched and she scrunched up her face in displeasure.
Swiping the back of her hand across her nose, Callie’s shoulders sagged and she hung her head, pivoting on her heels and marching right back over to the coffee cart for a refill.
That one simple, dorky little moment made Arizona feel more love for Calliope Torres than she’d ever felt before. She couldn’t keep a wide grin from forming as she shook her head in awed disbelief.
“I’m gonna marry that girl.”
Maria’s gaze snapped up from where it was trained on the floor to stare at her daughter.
“I mean, it’s not legal here in Washington,” Arizona amended, suddenly feeling as though mutant butterflies had burst forth in her stomach. She stared down at her hands and fiddled with them in her lap. “But honestly? I don’t care. Marry, commit, partnership, whatever they claim it is, I want to be able to call her my wife.”
She bit her bottom lip and glanced tentatively over at her mother. “What do you think?”
A slow smile appeared and Maria’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, sweetie, I think that’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard.” She leaned over the armrests and pulled Arizona into the tightest hug she could manage.
Arizona beamed and hugged her mother right back.
“You are so lucky to have found each other,” Mrs. Robbins murmured. “Just like me and my Danny.”
Arizona squeezed her eyes tightly shut and nodded rapidly, trying to hold back the well of tears suddenly threatening to spill over.
“He’ll be there to walk you down the aisle,” Maria whispered into Arizona’s shoulder. “I know he will.”
“And he’ll be there to see his granddaughter,” Arizona confirmed as she felt a hot tear splash against her skin. She’d only ever seen her mother cry three times in her entire life and it broke her heart to see it happen again now.
Arizona knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Callie was the one with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. While having a baby together pretty much said the brunette was on the same page, pre-proposal eagle wings swooped into her belly to join the mutant butterflies. Together they made her feel even more nervous and light-headed than she had been before.
Something told her this would be a busy week, no matter what the outcome was.
***
“Hey.”
Mark looked up from watching Deadliest Catch on the living room sofa to his very pregnant fiancée standing in the doorway of their bedroom. “Hey.”
“You’re not coming to bed?” Lexie asked tentatively, eyeing the pillow and blankets Mark had piled on the end cushion.
He shrugged, looking away from those expressive brown eyes rather quickly. He still didn’t know whether to feel ashamed or hurt over the huge altercation from earlier today. “You were out like a light when I got home and I didn’t want to wake you. Plus I’m waiting for a text message from Torres. Robbins’ dad got a heart today; he’s in surgery right now.”
Lexie padded over to the couch, sitting down but keeping a few inches of space between them. “Wow, that’s amazing. Do they think he’s gonna be okay?”
“Won’t know for a bit,” Mark replied, fighting the urge to wrap his arms around Lexie and pull her in close. “She said she’ll let me know as soon as Hahn comes out with news.”
Awkward silence followed. Lexie stared at her lap and twiddled her thumbs. “About earlier-”
“I’m sorry, okay?” Mark cut in. “I’m sorry for the whole damn thing with Kyla. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“I know,” Lexie replied lightly. “But you did.”
“I miss you.” Mark kept his gaze trained on Lexie even when she refused to look at him. “I’ve tried being patient and the last thing I want to do is make you think I’m harassing you for sex, because that’s not it. I miss you, Lex. All of you.”
Brown eyes lifted from the floor to finally meet his.
“I know you’re going through a lot right now, with your arm and carrying our boy around. And I’m here for you. Lately it just feels like you’d rather need everyone else but me.”
“Mark, that’s not it,” Lexie argued, sighing in frustration at their lack of communication. “I’m not...me lately, okay? I get that. Since I screwed up my shoulder my moods have been all over the map, my energy has hit rock bottom, and I’ve felt like a human disaster show. Rationally, I know that things like this happen to pregnant women but it’s still frustrating to deal with. I never asked to feel this way.”
Mark watched her with sad eyes. “I love you,” he stated softly.
Lexie sighed again and reached over to take his hand. “I love you, too.” She laced their fingers together. “Please come to bed. I can’t sleep without you next to me.”
Those were the first words that ignited hope within Mark in months. He stood up and pulled his pregnant girlfriend to her feet, tucking a lock of brown hair behind her ear and stroking her cheek. “Lead the way.”
Turning her face to kiss his palm, Lexie tugged him in the direction of their bedroom.
***
“Here comes the plane,” Callie cooed, holding up a soup spoon brimming with chicken noodle broth and slowly swaying it from side to side. “Brrrr, shoooom! Open up, coming in for a landing!”
Arizona tilted her head to the side and arched an unamused eyebrow, staring at her girlfriend while both arms remained stubbornly crossed over her chest.
Callie grinned before dropping the spoon back in the bowl and setting it down on the small table in front of them. “Whatever. Eat or starve; can’t say I didn’t try.”
She picked up her own container and produced a greasy piece of pizza from inside, groaning happily as she lifted it to her waiting mouth.
Arizona stuck her bottom lip out in a huffy pout, eyeballing Callie’s meal with envy. “How come I get soup and you get yummy, yummy pizza?”
“Because I’m pregnant and don’t have to worry about it going straight to my ass since I’m screwed anyway,” Callie said bluntly before biting into the slice of pepperoni with pickles, mushrooms and pineapple.
Arizona grunted unhappily and leaned forward to pick up her bowl. A greasy ball sitting in the pit of her stomach wouldn’t exactly do her any favours, so this was as good as it was going to get. Relaxing back in her chair, she scrunched her nose and poked at the floating chunks of chicken and vegetables that looked less than appealing. She was too hungry to pass it up, though, and took a tentative sip.
They were alone for now, Arizona’s mother having gone to stretch her legs with a quick stroll. She probably knew this place just as well as her daughter did at this point, having spent the last few months practically living in it with the Colonel.
In a way, sitting there with Callie allowed Arizona to pretend just for a moment that they were on their lunch break, spending time together at work like they always did and not waiting to hear whether her father’s transplant surgery was a success. She watched Callie munch away hungrily on her oddly topped pizza while taking a few sips of mediocre soup. Blue eyes flickered across the brunette’s body, settling on the very slight bump poking out from beneath her scrubs.
Callie caught the blonde staring and stopped mid-chew. “Whaf?” she mumbled through a mouthful of food.
Shrugging, Arizona lifted the spoon to her lips again. “Nothing. Just...you’re beautiful when you’re pregnant. You can scoff all you want but I mean it.” Her smile brightened even more. “And you’ll continue to look beautiful when you’re really, really pregnant.”
Callie turned to Arizona with the pizza slice hanging halfway from her mouth and a sharp glare fixed in place. “Funny, I didn’t know I wasn’t ‘really’ pregnant yet.”
Arizona backtracked. “No, that’s not what I m-”
“Or do you mean when I’m really fat? Or is it fater than I am now?”
Arizona’s eyes widened in an instant.
Crap.
“Um, that’s not what I - no, not at all,” she said hastily, stumbling over her words. “Not at all. I didn’t say that.”
Callie dropped the pizza to her lap and glared some more.
The blonde held up both hands in a submissive gesture. “I-I just meant that you’re always snarking at me whenever I say how gorgeous you are, like you don’t believe me. But you are - really gorgeous. And I meant, y’know, even though you keep griping about how in three months time you’re gonna sink the ship, I know better.”
“So now you’re smarter than me?” Callie shot back incredulously.
Oh, hell. Arizona suddenly wished she hadn’t started talking in the first place. Maybe being silent and depressed was safer than being vocal and wrong in the presence of a pregnant woman.
“I love you,” she added for good measure, flashing that brilliant, dimpled smile of hers.
Callie narrowed her eyes and grunted under her breath. “You’re just lucky you’re a God in bed, Arizona Robbins.”
Arizona blushed and immediately stuffed a piping hot spoonful of soup into her mouth, burning most of her taste buds off.
Callie settled after a minute, though, and nibbled absently at her pizza. “Your mom told me Robbins babies tend to come out big. Like, really big. She said for twins, you and your brother were monstrous.”
“We were not,” Arizona scoffed, shaking her head. “‘Monstrous’; God, that woman. We were two healthy babies carried to full term, something that doesn’t happen very often with twins. Combined we were around sixteen pounds.”
“Sixteen?” Callie stared at her partner in disbelief. “Holy shit, Arizona. Equate that to a single baby not fighting for space a-and that’s like, like...you’ve implanted me with a twelve pound human being!”
“Oh come on,” Arizona laughed, reaching her right hand over to rub Callie’s belly again. “Baby Robbins is of normal size and will by no means be twelve pounds. Besides, my brother weighed more than I did. Boys are stupid, which is why we’re having a girl.”
“If I have a twelve pound baby, I’m going to kill you.”
“If we have a twelve pound baby, you’ll be getting a C-section.”
Callie’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull. “Not. Helping.”
“Calliope, our little girl won’t be twelve pounds,” Arizona assured her, keeping her hand in place. “She’ll be a normal size, I promise. All you have to worry about it taking it easy so she’s born healthy and on time, not in the middle of you replacing some old guy’s hip because you worked yourself into labor.”
“I’m pregnant, not an invalid,” Callie pointed out. “I can still work.”
“I know you can,” Arizona agreed, “but I’m still looking forward to the day you officially go on maternity leave. You deserve time off and the papa bear in me will rest easier.”
Callie snorted, glancing sideways at her partner and producing a wry grin. “Arizona Robbins, take it easy? Those two things don’t co-exist in the same universe. You’re like the Energizer Bunny on steroids.”
Arizona pouted again. “Am not,” she grumbled under her breath, poking at her soup once more.
Suddenly Callie couldn’t picture anything other than her girlfriend running around with a pink bunny suit on, smacking a bass drum and ordering her interns to ‘keep going’. Well aware that it wasn’t something the blonde would appreciate very much, she snickered to herself and kept quiet.
The pizza disappeared a few minutes later and Callie looked over to see how Arizona was doing on the soup. The styrofoam bowl was still more than half full and Arizona had taken to staring down into the liquid with a furrowed brow and darkened expression.
Sighing, Callie reached over and took it from her, setting it aside before turning back and taking her girlfriend’s hands. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?”
Arizona lifted her eyes to meet Callie’s and shrugged. “Seven. Maybe six-and-a-half. It’s been worse.”
“It’s also been better,” Callie pointed out lightly, lifting their hands and lightly kissing her partner’s. “Can I do anything?”
“You’re already doing it,” Arizona said earnestly, leaning over and pressing a soft kiss to Callie’s irresistible lips. “Thank you.”
Smiling, the brunette dropped their clasped hands and slipped an arm around Arizona’s shoulders, tugging her closer. The pediatric surgeon melted into the embrace and once more replaced her head on Callie’s shoulder, snuggling in the best she could. Callie’s free hand played with hers, lightly massaging her fingers.
“You didn’t get any sleep earlier, did you?”
“Nope,” Arizona sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted all over again while her eyelids drooped. “I got paged by OB and it took a while. Oh, hey, Addison says to call her.”
“You talked to Addy?”
“Yeah, we needed her help with the case. She says hi. And that if you don’t call her, Santa will be sending you a lump of coal in the mail this year.”
Callie chuckled to herself. “Guess I’ll just have to do that, then.” She wouldn’t put it past Addison to do such a thing just to prove her point.
Arizona lapsed back into a tired silence, resting comfortably against the other woman yet too afraid to close her eyes and nod off. They were due for another update any time now and the surgery itself could even be finished by then.
She had to keep reminding herself that a longer surgery was better than a shorter one. No news was better than bad news. If no one had come to talk to them yet, that meant her dad was still here.
“We need to pick a name,” Callie added after a moment. She was trying to keep Arizona from falling back into the Bad Place and knew the only foolproof subject these days was their tiny human.
“Do we really need to pick one out already?” Arizona’s hand moved down to rest on her girlfriend’s belly again. “I’d kinda like to meet her first. Don’t wanna decide on something like Francine only to have her come out looking like a Georgia.”
“Okay, first off, neither of those names are even being considered,” Callie laughed. “Second, I don’t mean we have to firmly decide on one right now, but I would like to narrow it down a little.”
“You mean narrow it down from ‘Calliope’s List of Top Twenty-Five Names’? The one you stuck to the fridge that changes every other day?”
“That would be the one, yes.”
“What if I like Francine?”
“No.”
Arizona smirked and drew little circles over Baby Torres with her fingertips. “We both have our favourites that we’ve talked about. I’d still like to meet her before really deciding on anything, though.”
Callie tightened the arm she had around Arizona’s shoulders. “So for the first twenty-four hours she’ll just be ‘Hey, you’? Isn’t that a little cliché?”
“Sweetie, she’ll be an eating, pooping and sleeping machine for the first day. I doubt she’d notice if we called her Bubbles.”
“I am not even temporarily naming our daughter after the stripper Mark bought you for your birthday.”
Arizona snorted. “Her name was not Bubbles. What kinda stripper name would that be?”
“It was so Bubbles. I remember because I specifically stated what a crappy stripper name it was out loud and pissed her off.”
“Whatever, girl-who-got-dry-humped-by-Glitter. You totally enjoyed the lap dance more than I did and you know it.”
Callie would never stop amusing herself over the memories of Arizona’s birthday shenanigans at ‘Déjà Vu Showgirls’ downtown. She was one-hundred percent certain that she and Mark would’ve never convinced white-bread Robbins to go to a strip club if they hadn’t gotten her drunk at Joe’s first. Mark and Teddy had been the only other two willing to go with them back then. The rest was history that both women only semi-remembered.
Arizona was still laughing over the incoherent and ridiculous memories of that night moments later when her mother returned to the waiting area. Both she and Callie shut up and tried to stifle their laughter, not too keen on divulging the reason behind their hysterics.
Callie loved Mrs. Robbins but she did not want her knowing she’d taken her daughter to a strip club for her last birthday. Some things were just better left unsaid to in-laws.
Small talk ruled from there on out, with exhaustion slowly creeping up on Arizona and beginning to win out over the urge to stay alert. She must have actually drifted off at some point because suddenly Callie was shaking her awake and urging her to pay attention.
“Hm?” Arizona lifted her head from her girlfriend’s shoulder and blinked sleepily, feeling a little discombobulated.
“Zona,” Callie said urgently, nudging her again and standing up.
Suddenly Arizona remembered where she was and looked over to see Erica Hahn approaching. Heart in her throat, she leapt to her feet and immediately linked arms with her mother. Hahn’s face was impossible to read from here.
Erica waited until she was in front of them before she started speaking. “It was touch and go there for a while but his new heart is in and he’s on his way to recovery.”
Callie thanked God that her ex had finally learned how to get straight to the point.
“He’s okay?” Maria asked, voice strained.
“For now, yes, Daniel is okay. He made it through the surgery and his new heart is working perfectly. It’s still a waiting game to see how well he takes to it and the recovery process will be long, but he’s doing good for now.”
“Oh thank God,” Mrs. Robbins cried, placing a hand over her mouth as she was suddenly overcome with relief. “Thank you, Dr. Hahn, thank you.”
Arizona was still speechless and a little numb as she pulled her mom into a hard hug. “He’s okay,” she croaked. “He’s gonna be okay.”
“Your father’s stubborn streak came in handy this time,” Maria joked weakly, sniffling a few times. She released her daughter and immediately pulled her husband’s surgeon into a hug.
Callie grinned. Erica awkwardly patted Maria on the back and waited to be let go. Some things would never change.
Arizona still felt like she was in a trance, as though she didn’t know if she was allowed to be relieved yet or not. They’d all been waiting for this moment and yet it seemed completely surreal while it was happening. Maybe she was still sleeping.
A hand resting on the small of her back brought her back to reality in an instant. She looked over to find Callie’s gorgeous brown eyes watching her, a careful smile aimed her way.
“See? Told you,” Callie said, rubbing a hand soothingly along the back of Arizona’s scrubs.
Arizona finally managed a smile of her own, lingering on Callie before focusing her attention on Dr. Hahn. “Thank you,” she stated sincerely, wishing there was more she could say but finding herself rather speechless. “I-I just...thank you, Erica.”
Erica nodded in response and glanced from Callie to Arizona again. “Yang will be able to tell you what ICU room he’s in once he’s out of recovery. I’ll check in once he’s there and be able to update you a little more. But right now he’s doing fine, so you can all rest easy.”
Those words finally seemed to sink in for Arizona as Hahn turned and left them alone to celebrate. She stared at Callie, speechless, and laughed because she didn’t know what else to say or do.
“I have to call your Aunt Shelly, she’ll be so relieved,” Maria spoke up, fumbling for the cell phone in her purse. She headed off towards the main doors to make the call outside.
Left alone, Arizona turned to her lover and stared, clearly still in some level of shock.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Callie whispered to her as she wrapped her in her arms. “Just breathe.”
Arizona closed her eyes and held on tightly, bunching the brunette’s scrubs in both fists. She was so overwhelmed with a mixture of relief, shock, and disbelief that she didn’t know what to say. So she just let Callie hug her and melted into the embrace.
Callie buried her face into the crook of Arizona’s neck, breathing her in as she felt the tension drain from her partner’s body. For a moment she was worried the blonde would pass out in her arms and tightened her grip.
“I love you,” Callie whispered, dropping a light kiss to the smooth skin beneath her lips.
Arizona closed her eyes and took in a shuddering breath. “Love you, too,” she croaked, arms tightening around Callie’s waist.
For the first time in what felt like forever, Arizona realized like she might finally be able to get some sleep that night.
---