Milestones (1/1)
Milestones (1/1)
Author: kennedysbitch
Beta: the former strandedinaber -- come back! :( we miss you…
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer
Author’s Note: This is a birthday fic prompt for englishstrawbie, who has edited billions of words for me over the years and who puts up with a lot of angsty writer feelings on a daily basis (not to mention a lot of excuses). She’s also the master of random gifspams full of puppies and pretty girls. ILU! <3 Happy birthday and I hope this fulfills all of your requests. The prompt went as follows:
C/A focused, less Sofia. Arizona spoils Callie on her birthday and Callie finally finds out why Arizona doesn’t like her own. Must include: an inflatable pink flamingo, dancing in their underwear, chocolate and strawberries, the words ‘fallacious’ and ‘superfluous’, a scene involving Arizona meeting someone famous, a sword fight, and sunflowers.
Summary: Callie’s 40th birthday has arrived and Arizona goes all out while dodging questions surrounding her own birthday blues. Meanwhile, a day full of patients and coworkers stand between Callie and Arizona’s evening of celebrations.
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Sometimes, Arizona drove Callie insane.
On the one hand, she was a kind, thoughtful and brilliant person. They’d had their share of rough patches, but she made Callie very happy and vice versa. There was a softer side to her wife that most people never got the chance to experience; a side she got to see every time they curled up in bed together and put a long, difficult day’s work behind them. It had come as no surprise that Arizona loved to turn Callie’s birthday into an all-day affair, going out of her way to achieve ‘fairy princess’ status on the scale of spoilage. Callie felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
The flip side of that oh-so-lovable persona was that Arizona was just so freakin’ stubborn. Callie was talking goat-meets-brick-wall-meets-Chuck-Norris. It was part of what made her such a fantastic pediatric surgeon, someone who fought tooth and nail for her patients, but it also meant that getting her to talk about something she didn’t want to talk about was next to impossible.
To this day, Arizona hated her birthday and Callie had no idea why. Not all birthdays, just her own. It wasn’t the whiny, pouting, ‘don’t make a fuss’ approach employed by some people; Arizona just didn’t talk about it. At all. Callie never again made the mistake of throwing a surprise party - one crying disaster was enough to teach her that lesson - but Arizona could hardly be bribed to go out for so much as post-work drinks with their friends if she had any inkling that it was in celebration of the day she was born. Once, she had let Callie bring her flowers at work, but that was about the extent of it. A few years of the same argument went by until Callie finally gave up trying. It was just one of her wife’s quirks that she would never fully understand.
Last November had been no different. She put together a quiet dinner at home and Sofia had drawn a (surprisingly well done for a five-year-old) scrapbook of pictures as a present for her Mama. It was a low key but enjoyable November night for their little family. Callie had even snuck in a little birthday sex, disguised as regular sex with a touch of kink.
The memory of it all made Callie feel horribly inadequate when she awoke on July 7th to a bouquet of sunflowers, a small plate of chocolate covered strawberries, and a birthday card all sitting on the pillow next to her. Arizona was absent but could be heard preparing breakfast in the kitchen.
With a sleepy groan, Callie rolled over and wiped the hair from her face, then picked up and opened the card. It was impossible not to smile at Sofia’s messy kindergarten writing that took up most of the inside. Below, Arizona’s fancy penmanship declared today Callie’s day, expressed her love, and promised more to come later that evening. Callie drew the flowers to her nose and breathed in deeply, unperturbed by their lack of fragrance and simply enjoying the freshness. She loved sunflowers.
The door to their bedroom burst open and Sofia came flying in ahead of Arizona, who was balancing a tray of orange juice, blueberry pancakes and espresso to go with the chocolate-covered strawberries. “Happy birthday, Mami!” Sofia squealed, leaping onto the bed and throwing her arms around her mother.
“Oof!” Callie collapsed back into her pillows and hugged the six-year-old tightly. “Careful, sweetie. Mami’s getting old.”
Sofia giggled and pulled away, then stood up and started jumping on the bed. “Guess what?”
Callie matched Arizona’s amused grin at their daughter’s antics. “What?”
“Mama says Nana and Papa are taking me camping!”
“They are?” Callie tilted her head at her wife. “I didn’t even know your parents were in town.”
“Yep,” Arizona confirmed, setting the breakfast tray on the side table before flopping down next to Callie. “They’ll be picking her up in an hour.” There was a secretive glint in her eyes, an unspoken acknowledgment that they now had the evening all to themselves.
Callie loved their daughter to pieces, but it had been ages since she and Arizona had had any time alone together outside of quick naps in an on-call room, where one of them would inevitably get paged away. A day for just the two of them would be a welcome surprise.
“In this camping scenario, are there bears?” she murmured, lifting an eyebrow while Sofia was distracted by the flowers.
Amused, Arizona leaned down and planted a firm kiss on her lips. “Yes, Calliope, there are bears in the state of Washington. But this is RV camping, because my mother refuses to sleep on the ground.” Much to her Marine father’s chagrin, but the man would do anything for his wife, including ‘camping like a sissy’ as he called it.
Callie was relieved to know that their small child wouldn’t exactly be roughing it out there with the predators. Even so, there was little doubt in her mind that Colonel Robbins could scare away a grizzly if the need arose.
“Remind me to book my birthday off next year so we can take advantage of the free babysitting,” she suggested.
“Not a baby…” Sofia grumbled in the background, eating one of the chocolate-covered strawberries when neither of her parents were looking.
Callie sat up slowly and indulged in a full-body stretch, groaning in satisfaction. She took one look at the treats surrounding her and broke out into a huge grin. “I knew I married you for a reason,” she said to Arizona, wiggling her fingers while trying to decide what to go for first.
Laughing, Arizona stood and hoisted Sofia onto her hip. “C’mon, baby girl. Let’s let Mami relax while we go clean your room and get ready for your grandparents.”
“Not a baby!” Sofia reiterated.
“You’ll always be my baby,” Arizona teased, planting a noisy kiss on her cheek.
Sofia made a face, her bottom lip protruding in a very distinct Torres pout, only to be sidetracked moments later by her mother’s breakfast. “Bacon!” she exclaimed, eyeballing the plate with envy.
“Mami’s bacon. You’ve already had yours,” Arizona chided.
“Sorry Sof. Birthday girls don’t have to share their bacon.” Callie winked and tossed the remaining piece into her mouth.
Squeezing the grumbling child in her arms, Arizona sashayed from the bedroom, pulling the door closed behind them to give Callie some privacy. Getting Sofia ready in the morning was a chore in itself and chores weren’t a part of birthday celebrations in this house.
Now that the room was quiet, Callie moved the breakfast tray to her lap and propped herself against a pile of pillows. She flicked the television on, idly surfing through news channels, enjoying the rare hour of pre-work downtime. As frustrating as Arizona’s birthday blues were, Callie couldn’t help but think that she would change her mind if she were the one in bed and Callie was chasing Sofia around the apartment with a pair of leggings in tow.
***
With Sofia shipped off for thirty-six hours and no responsibility to anyone but themselves after 5pm, the last place Callie expected to find herself was still working at half past six. Technically she could have escaped out the back with no-one the wiser, but Arizona was stuck helping with Karev’s backlog and had fired off a quick apology text. Rather than go home and spend the time alone in her pajamas - tempting as it was - Callie opted to remain behind and catch up on some paperwork.
Between ER coverage and a busy OR schedule, it was the first time she had been to her office all day. When she opened the door, she was greeted by forty overtly bright and unexpected flamingos - the inflatable kind - three of which toppled over and landed at her feet.
Callie stopped just inside the threshold of the office and blinked at her bizarre surroundings. “What the-”
“Happy birthday!” April Kepner trumpeted for everyone within a ten mile radius to hear, coming up behind Callie and throwing an awkward hug around her shoulders. “I was starting to think you wouldn’t see them until Monday.” She looked extremely pleased with herself and apparently missed the astonishment on the birthday girl’s face.
“Yeah, that would’ve been...bad,” Callie mumbled as she took it all in. She would have fingered Arizona as the culprit but it made sense that her wife’s clueless friend was behind the mess instead. Callie normally loved birthday surprises, only something told her that she would be the one stuck cleaning this up at the end of the day. Not to mention there was nowhere to sit until that happened, and she was really tired.
“There was supposed to be cake in the lounge but the bakery screwed up and gave it to the wrong person this morning,” April sighed, oblivious to Callie’s plight. She helped her push inside, nudging a few of the birds over with her foot. “It’ll be here on Monday instead, so today you get flamingos!” She raised her arms in a grand gesture of celebration.
“Thanks,” Callie said weakly, wondering how in the hell she was supposed to get to her desk. She didn’t want to be a total grouch, so she attempted to move a few of the ornaments politely to the side, only for two more to fall off the bookshelf and peg her in the face.
April winced. “I know it’s a bit much,” she began, wringing her hands together nervously.
“Aren’t lawn flamingos for old people?” Callie asked. She distinctly remembered doing the same thing for her Abuela’s 70th many years ago.
“Forty is a milestone, the party store had a packaged set and everything.” April’s pager went off before she could notice the glower being aimed her way. “Sorry, that’s the ER. Enjoy your birthday, Dr. Torres!” she said, stepping over a flamingo on her way out.
“Milestone my ass,” Callie grumbled. She took one final look around her office and sighed in resignation. “Screw it,” she declared, punting a pink bird out of the way and tripping over another as she shut the door behind her. Paperwork could wait over the weekend; what she needed now more than ever was a long and uninterrupted birthday nap.
***
Securing an on-room to herself, Callie stripped down to her underwear and fell asleep. After a very frustrating day full of morons and assholes - and a crapload of inflatable birds nesting in her office - she needed to recharge her batteries.
She was unconscious for all of ten minutes when Arizona texted her to come upstairs, giving no detail other than a cryptic ‘I’ll explain when you get here’. Callie was starting to worry that their fancy dinner reservation would turn into ordering pizza and falling asleep on the couch before ten o’clock. While that wasn’t an awful idea, it already resembled something they did five to six nights a week, and she refused to turn forty by acting like she was sixty and succumbing to the lull of her sweatpants. So she put on her scrubs again and shuffled off to the pediatric unit, ready to throw Arizona over her shoulder and carry her out those doors if need be.
They met outside of Arizona’s office. “Why am I here?” Callie whined, dragging her feet as they headed down a long corridor. “If it’s not an emergency, I’m gonna be seriously pissed. I put on pants for this.”
“Because,” Arizona said mysteriously. “I have a surprise for you.”
Callie continued to put up the resistance of a cranky toddler, pulling on Arizona’s arm. “I’m not sure a cool medical case counts as a birthday gift. Not unless it’s really, really good.”
“Would you stop whining until you at least know what it is?”
“Only the meanest wives give a girl work on her birthday.” Callie raised a pointed eyebrow.
“Then I guess you have the meanest.” Arizona stuck out her tongue and poked Callie in the side. They went left at a hallway junction and paused in front of a private patient room.
Callie’s brow furrowed as she took in the closed blinds. The peds unit was kept under closer surveillance than most wards and it was mandatory to always have a line of sight on the patient in case of emergencies.
“Remember our trip to New York two years ago?” Arizona asked, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
Callie frowned, wondering what that had to do with anything. “Yeah, of course. We saw ‘Wicked’ reprised and ran into Maury Povich on the subway.”
“Remember the leading lady?” Arizona’s carefully guarded expression started to crack. She was terrible at keeping secrets when they were exciting.
Confused, Callie allowed her wife to guide her to the window pane in the door. She peeked inside and audibly gasped. “No way.”
Arizona bounced. “Yes way.”
Callie flattened herself against the wall, mouth agape and eyes wide. “What the heck is she doing here?!”
“Some sort of guest spot in a Seattle production,” Arizona shrugged. “Her son came down with appendicitis so I operated on him this morning.”
“You operated on-”
“Yep.” Arizona beamed and took Callie by the arm. “Come on. She said to bring you by once I mentioned you were a fan.”
Callie dug her heels in. “What? No! I can’t go in there. That’s totally unprofessional.”
“Calliope, come on,” Arizona said urgently. “It’s your birthday and you’ve had a crush on her since we got married.”
“Since before I knew I liked girls,” Callie corrected, already feeling a touch of heat flame her cheeks.
“All the more reason not to be silly.” Arizona let her peek inside the window again. “She’s really nice and her kid is a riot. Honestly, they don’t mind.”
The more she thought about it, the stupider Callie felt standing outside a patient’s room, trying not to turn into a blubbering idiot. But she remembered that New York trip with Arizona very well and her love of Broadway had only amplified after seeing several shows in person.
Making the decision on Callie’s behalf, Arizona knocked on the door. When a voice answered, she took her wife by the arm and steered her inside before she could change her mind.
***
“Wow.”
Arizona puffed up triumphantly. “Yep.”
“Oh my god.”
She nudged Callie forward a step as they arrived at the peds desk. “Go on. Tell me I’m amazing.”
“You’re amazing,” Callie said without delay. “That was pretty cool.”
“Worth putting on pants for?”
Callie’s smirk was very suggestive. “Worth taking them off for,” she emphasized.
“Behave, Torres. We still have a five-star meal to get to before I can get you naked.” Arizona leaned across the desk to fish through the mess of charts littering the surface. “God, Alex is like a toddler that refuses to clean his room.”
“Put him in the naughty corner until he follows house rules.” Callie always loved watching Arizona smack Karev around. Her wife was the only person in this hospital he had any real respect for.
“It’s mostly his interns, which he’s supposed to be keeping an eye on,” Arizona growled, unable to find what she was looking for amongst the piles of loose paper. “It’s like asking a couple of six-year-olds to keep each other in line, honestly...”
Exasperated, she leaned back just as something small and lightning quick barreled into the side of her prosthetic, nearly knocking her over.
Callie caught her by the arm, helping her find her balance, and watched two boys in pajamas dart around them while clashing plastic swords together. They were too absorbed in making sound effects to even notice the collision.
One of the boys, who couldn’t be more than six, leaped behind Callie and used her as a shield. “Dr. Robbins, Brayden is cheating!”
“Am not!” Brayden, seven, contested hotly. He stood by Arizona’s side, sword extended, waiting for his foe to step out into the open.
“Whoa whoa whoa, hang on a second,” Arizona chastised, glancing between the two and pursing her lips with feigned authority. “What seems to be the problem here?”
The younger of the two, Christopher, clung to Callie’s leg, seemingly oblivious that she was an actual person he had yet to make eye contact with. “He hit me in the arm. ”
“Brayden,” Arizona scolded, fixing the older boy with her patented ‘Mama Robbins’ look. Callie had seen her guilt Sofia into admission numerous times with that very same one. “You know the rules. True pirates only fight with honor. Sword contact only.”
“Not my fault he’s too slow,” the culprit grumbled. “And real pirates have eye patches.”
“We’re fresh out of those,” Arizona mused while sharing a smile with her wife. “How long have you boys been out of bed?”
“Only a minute.” Christopher blinked innocently at the adults.
Callie tilted her head at the kid. “Hm, I don’t think I believe that. Dr. Robbins, do you believe that?”
Arizona slowly shook her head. “Nope. What should we do with the little rascals, Dr. Torres?”
Callie stooped over and plucked tiny Christopher from her leg. “I say we get ‘em to walk the plank.”
Giggling, Christopher settled happily in the pretty lady’s arms. “I can’t swim!”
“You can’t? What kind of pirate-in-training can’t swim?” Callie sighed. “Okay, I’ll let it go this once. But that means you need to get back in bed and get some rest for me, okay?”
Christopher pouted but didn’t put up any resistance. “Okay…”
Arizona took Brayden’s hand and together the four of them turned back to their rooms. They were only a few feet away from the nurse’s station - Christopher’s father and Brayden’s mom were watching from their respective doorways, making sure the kids didn’t cause too much trouble while enjoying the sight of them having fun. Both boys were in for similar cancer treatments, so Arizona had roomed them side by side for the duration and introduced the families. For the last few weeks, the boys had been inseparable any time they were allowed out of bed. ‘Pirates and Scoundrels’, as Arizona called it, happened to be their favourite game.
Callie went to deposit Christopher in his bed while Arizona led Brayden into his room.
“I swear he has more energy than I do most days, and I’m not the one getting chemo,” his mother, Angela, said to the pair. “Don’t suppose you have a lasso in that pile of toys?”
Arizona helped Brayden climb into bed and plugged in his IV again. She had given the nurses the okay to let the kids off of it for ten to fifteen minutes an afternoon if they were feeling okay and it didn’t interrupt any scheduled treatments. “I can look into it, but something tells me these two won’t get caught unless they want to be.”
Brayden looked rather pleased with himself. “Mom, when we go home, can Christopher come over and play?”-
“Of course, sweetie,” his mother replied, smoothing the hair back from his forehead. He hadn’t started to lose it just yet, though there was no telling when or if that would happen. “Right now, you should try and get some sleep.”
“But I’m not tired!”
“I am,” Arizona said earnestly, discarding the empty IV bag she had just replaced. “When you’re a grown-up, you’ll miss nap time. Trust me.”
Brayden made a face as Callie joined the trio. “Dr. Robbins isn’t lying. I would totally nap right now if I could.”
“Me too,” Angela said. Of the three adults, she definitely looked the most in need of some rest.
“See? You’re lucky you get to go to bed early and no one will make fun of you. Every time I close my eyes before dinner time, Dr. Torres here draws a marker on my face,” Arizona sighed.
Brayden cackled as though that were the best thing he had heard all day. “Really?”
“Oh, please don’t give him ideas,” his mother groaned.
“She’s kidding,” Callie said quickly, shooting Arizona a playful grin. “I only did that once, like five years ago, and it wasn’t permanent marker or anything.”
“You drew a mustache on my cheek,” Arizona pouted. “I didn’t even notice until I was getting ready for work the next morning.”
“You sound like my husband,” Angela said to Callie. “The two of you could get up to some trouble.”
“The only kind of trouble we’re hoping for tonight is a quiet dinner and some dancing.” Arizona checked Brayden’s vitals and ruffled his hair affectionately when everything seemed good. “It’s Callie’s birthday.”
“Happy birthday,” the boy’s mother exclaimed, pulling Callie into a quick hug. Her son had been in and out over the last few months, and she’d gotten to know the Torres-Robbins family by now. “That sounds lovely. I hope for your sake neither of you have to work tomorrow. Paint the town red on my behalf; I don’t remember the last time I had a dinner with my husband that wasn’t ordered by phone.”
“Well, we only get the chance once a year. This one won’t even let me celebrate hers,” Callie said, jerking a thumb at her wife. “It’s like pulling teeth or trying to make a horse drink water, or...whatever.”
Arizona rolled her eyes. “Callie…”
“I’m serious. If I so much as breathe the words ‘congratulations on being born this day seven-hundred years ago’, she gets mad at me.”
“Really?” Angela looked confused. “You don’t like your birthday?”
“I love my birthday!” Brayden spoke up. “Dr. Robbins, don’t you want presents?” He looked as though he couldn’t fathom turning such a thing down.
Arizona narrowed her eyes at Callie for causing a stink. “The last time you wanted to do something extravagant for my birthday, you suggested white-water rafting. Because there was a Groupon in your inbox that morning.”
“I was being facetious. You said you wanted to go on an adventure!”
“I said we should get out of the house more often,” Arizona corrected. “You trying to convince me to throw ourselves down a violent river was less than reassuring.”
“I get this same reaction if I suggest we go out for drinks with our friends after work on her birthday, by the way,” Callie said to Angela, earning a scoff from her wife.
“Brayden, you’re a spelling-bee champ, right?” Arizona asked her patient, smirking as she scribbled a note on his chart. “Can you spell ‘superfluous’?”
He scrunched his forehead. “Huh?”
“It’s weird, honey. Everyone likes their birthday,” Callie added.
Arizona pursed her lips and let out a heavy sigh. “You’re like a dog with a bone. Just drop it.”
Angela had to smile at their antics. “Can I make a suggestion?”
“Please do,” Callie said adamantly.
“Let the woman take you out on your birthday,” Angela agreed. “Maybe not boating, but somewhere nice and quiet. It won’t kill you and it’ll make her less likely to harp on the issue. It’s a win-win situation.”
“Thank you!” Callie cocked her head and tried not to smile too widely. “Would it help if my official birthday wish was that I get to take you out somewhere in November?”
Seeing that she was outnumbered had to make Arizona laugh. “Okay, okay, I’ll think about what you all said,” she relented, knowing when she was defeated on an issue. “But today is your day, Callie, so for now can we just focus on that? Please?”
Callie raised a hand and dropped the subject for the time being. “All right, deal.” She checked her watch. “We should probably get going anyway.”
“Enjoy the evening,” Angela said as she pulled up a chair beside her son’s bed. “Fill me in tomorrow so I can live vicariously.”
“Bye!” Brayden exclaimed, earning a smile from both doctors.
Waving farewell to mother and son, Arizona followed Callie out and headed downstairs to change into their street clothes, skirting quickly through the halls before something else had the chance to pop up and postpone their evening.
***
Despite the humorous argument, Callie was left feeling just as perplexed when it came to Arizona and her inability to bend on the birthday issue. She watched her wife out of the corner of her eye as they weaved between cars in the staff parking lot. “You’re still up for dinner, right? Because if you’re too tired or your leg is hurting…”
Arizona slipped an arm around Callie’s waist and steered her into a soft kiss. “Of course I’m up for it. I want to see you in a cocktail dress and treat you like a lady tonight.”
“Not too lady-like, I hope.” Callie wiggled her eyebrows as they stopped next to their car.
Arizona brushed a dark curl behind her wife’s ear. “Definitely lady-like,” she said softly, dispelling the sexual pretense with a gentler, adoring look.
Callie melted, finding herself just as enraptured with Arizona’s gorgeous blue eyes as ever. “It isn’t fair, you know,” she said carefully, leaning a hip against their vehicle. “You never letting me surprise you. Maybe I would understand if I knew the reason, but I just...I don’t.”
Arizona looked away. “I don’t need it to be a big deal, that’s all. I have you and Sofia, that’s more of a present than I could’ve ever hoped for.”
Callie wasn’t buying it. “I’m going to feel like an ass every time you treat me like a queen while I barely get to take you out for a good meal unless I hogtie and throw you in the back of the car. Times that by fifty years and I’ll start to get a complex.” She tugged on Arizona’s jacket.
Arizona sighed in exasperation, scrounging for an excuse. “I don’t know…I did get attacked by a clown once.”
Callie’s brow shot up. “What?”
“Oh yeah, it was awful.” Arizona fished out her car keys, distracted. “He chased me around the playground and it freaked me out, so I vowed never to have a birthday party ever again.”
“Uh-huh,” Callie deadpanned, refusing to budge when Arizona tried to open the driver’s door behind her. “Fallacious much? You are so full of crap.”
Arizona groaned and finally started to crack. They could stand there all night and volley back and forth, for if there was one person more stubborn and adamant than she was, it was the woman she had married. “It’s not something I actively think about,” she said, licking her lips. “I guess it’s...it’s stupid, but birthdays make me sad. They always have.” Arizona shrugged.
Callie’s gaze softened. “Sad?” she echoed.
Arizona took Callie’s hand and traced a thumb across her wedding band. “We moved every year when I was a kid,” she said matter-of-factly. “Once in a blue moon I got to celebrate my birthday with a friend I’d had for more than a few days, but for the most part, I didn’t know anyone. Birthdays were really lonely. I never really looked forward to them.”
“I’m sorry,” Callie murmured, squeezing Arizona’s fingers. She looked slightly confused. “Is that why you…?”
“No.” Arizona shook her head. “There were presents and family dinners when my dad was home, but my mom worked with the army wives while he was away. Usually it was just Tim and I for the day. We hung out and he always found us something fun to do, even if it was at home in our back yard. He made up games and stuff to keep me occupied from the fact that I had no friends.”
A lightbulb went on in Callie’s head. “Oh,” she said quietly, finally beginning to understand.
Arizona cast her eyes down at the pavement, feeling involuntarily nostalgic. “There were a lot of years where it was just the two of us. I don’t think I can remember a single birthday he missed out on before he…” She paused and tried to shake off the prickling of memories that threatened to creep up on her. By now this wasn’t anything worth crying over; she had taken care of that in the months and years following her brother’s death. Usually, she tried not to think about the past, so maybe Callie was onto something here.
Callie reached out in support but Arizona continued nonetheless. “My first year of med school, Tim couldn’t fly out to visit, so he sent me this ridiculous care package full of the most random stuff instead, just to make me laugh while I was in the middle of midterms. Even when he couldn’t physically be there, he never forgot about my birthday.” She looked sad all of a sudden. “He died a month later.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Callie whispered, stepping closer and hugging Arizona tightly against her body. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
Arizona smiled and buried her nose in the crook of Callie’s neck. “It’s okay. It just took me a long time to accept that he was gone, and I have, but birthdays are still the hardest. Sometimes I wake up thinking, for a moment, that I should expecting his phone call or something. All it does is remind me that he’s gone. Nick, too.”
Callie closed her eyes and rubbed a soothing hand along her partner’s back. “The last thing I want to do is make you sad on your birthday, but maybe celebrating it anyway would be how they’d want you to remember.”
“Yeah,” Arizona sighed, “maybe you’re right.” She knew it would never be something she jumped for joy over, but Callie and Sofia made her world better every day they were together as a family. Those two helped cushion the blow of all that she had lost over the years, and the losses were plenty.
“Tonight is different,” Arizona said firmly as she pulled back from the hug. “What would make me happy is to celebrate you. Our adorable daughter is with her grandparents, which means not only do I get to see you and your legs in a fancy dress and heels, but I get to take you out of it myself after we get home.” Nothing on earth could make her sad when the prospect of some very healthy and robust sex awaited their future.
“That I can agree to,” Callie smirked, thinking along the same lines as her wife. She was relieved that Arizona didn’t seem too upset over the conversation. “If we leave now, we can make it home in time to change. Can’t show up at a five star restaurant in jeans and sandals.”
“Hey, I only have one leg and I save babies for a living,” Arizona teased. “I dare them to try and kick me out.”
***
The restaurant was exquisite and reminded Callie why French cooking was some of her favourite. No one could call it calorie-friendly, but that night she dined like a queen and did so with a gorgeous woman sitting across the table. The mood was light and romantic, full of teasing and the relaying of stories, one of which caused Callie to spray water through her nose when she laughed too hard. The quiet atmosphere of the restaurant had them trying to suppress a flurry of giggles to no avail. Eight years together and they never found themselves bored of the conversation.
She hardly ever thought about Arizona as an amputee anymore; the heeled prosthetic and Arizona’s confidence made it impossible to tell just by watching her move. The only thing her wife was still tentative about was dancing in public, as natural instinct sometimes took over with what were now unnatural movements. Callie managed to squeeze in a few slow dances by the piano stage, where she was careful to lead with some slow, easy swaying, after which they sat down for dessert.
By the time they got home, it was after midnight and both ladies were exhausted, happy, and more than a little drunk. Arizona sat on the corner of their bed to take off her shoes, not trusting her balance after ingesting a couple of glasses of wine over dinner. She pulled her prosthetic off with a grunt and massaged her thigh.
Callie spotted the other, more comfortable model by the side table and picked it up. “Do you think you can stand for a few more minutes?” she asked tentatively, carrying it over to her wife.
Arizona’s leg was pretty sore by now but the flat foot was definitely easier to stand in. She slipped it on over her sock and took Callie’s hand to rise to her feet.
Smiling, Callie wrapped an arm securely around her waist and started to sway her hips, leading Arizona in a much more comfortable dance now that they were out of both heels and the public eye. “You look amazing tonight,” she stated, dropping her eyes down to wife’s cleavage, an involuntary response given the dress she was wearing. “All I could think about was how much I wanted you for dessert.”
“I don’t know, that chocolate mousse was pretty amazing,” Arizona said slyly, allowing her fingers to snake around Callie’s back and pull down the zipper of her dress.
Callie’s brow went up although her movements never slowed. “Merely a warm-up, my love. There’s no way I’m satisfied yet.”
“Good answer.” Arizona let the dress fall away from Callie’s torso and guided it over her hips, at the same time tilting her head and meeting her halfway in a kiss. Both hands ghosted across her wife’s heated skin and she didn’t need to open her eyes to feel the satin and lace present for the special occasion. A deep groan of approval rumbled up from her chest. “God, you are so sexy.”
Callie smiled and stepped out of the dress, deepening the kiss for a moment before she leaned back. “So, I look good for forty?”
Arizona peeked one eye open and snorted in disbelief. “Speaking as someone that hit that milestone two years ago, I’m going to hope that you’re being facetious again.”
“You age backwards, so it’s not the same.” Callie curved her palms around Arizona’s ribcage and mirrored her earlier movements with the zipper along the side of the blue evening dress. It dropped away to reveal a very enticing lingerie set, garters included, that left little but the best parts to the imagination. Her jaw just about hit the floor at the unexpected surprise. “Holy…”
“Happy birthday, Calliope,” Arizona husked, tilting her head back to nibble on her stupified wife’s lip, before taking her hand and walking them towards to the bed. “I think it’s time you opened your present.”
Callie could hardly form coherent thoughts, much less argue, and nodded enthusiastically as Arizona lunged forward in a kiss. She was barely aware of her legs hitting the bed, grasping Arizona tightly as they fell backwards in a tangled heap. A keening moan escaped as Arizona immediately found that perfect spot on Callie’s neck and latched onto it with her mouth.
“Happy birthday to me,” Callie groaned, fisting her hands in Arizona’s hair as she formulated all the ways she would repay this moment come November 8th.
---
Author: kennedysbitch
Beta: the former strandedinaber -- come back! :( we miss you…
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer
Author’s Note: This is a birthday fic prompt for englishstrawbie, who has edited billions of words for me over the years and who puts up with a lot of angsty writer feelings on a daily basis (not to mention a lot of excuses). She’s also the master of random gifspams full of puppies and pretty girls. ILU! <3 Happy birthday and I hope this fulfills all of your requests. The prompt went as follows:
C/A focused, less Sofia. Arizona spoils Callie on her birthday and Callie finally finds out why Arizona doesn’t like her own. Must include: an inflatable pink flamingo, dancing in their underwear, chocolate and strawberries, the words ‘fallacious’ and ‘superfluous’, a scene involving Arizona meeting someone famous, a sword fight, and sunflowers.
Summary: Callie’s 40th birthday has arrived and Arizona goes all out while dodging questions surrounding her own birthday blues. Meanwhile, a day full of patients and coworkers stand between Callie and Arizona’s evening of celebrations.
-------------------------------
Sometimes, Arizona drove Callie insane.
On the one hand, she was a kind, thoughtful and brilliant person. They’d had their share of rough patches, but she made Callie very happy and vice versa. There was a softer side to her wife that most people never got the chance to experience; a side she got to see every time they curled up in bed together and put a long, difficult day’s work behind them. It had come as no surprise that Arizona loved to turn Callie’s birthday into an all-day affair, going out of her way to achieve ‘fairy princess’ status on the scale of spoilage. Callie felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
The flip side of that oh-so-lovable persona was that Arizona was just so freakin’ stubborn. Callie was talking goat-meets-brick-wall-meets-Chuck-Norris. It was part of what made her such a fantastic pediatric surgeon, someone who fought tooth and nail for her patients, but it also meant that getting her to talk about something she didn’t want to talk about was next to impossible.
To this day, Arizona hated her birthday and Callie had no idea why. Not all birthdays, just her own. It wasn’t the whiny, pouting, ‘don’t make a fuss’ approach employed by some people; Arizona just didn’t talk about it. At all. Callie never again made the mistake of throwing a surprise party - one crying disaster was enough to teach her that lesson - but Arizona could hardly be bribed to go out for so much as post-work drinks with their friends if she had any inkling that it was in celebration of the day she was born. Once, she had let Callie bring her flowers at work, but that was about the extent of it. A few years of the same argument went by until Callie finally gave up trying. It was just one of her wife’s quirks that she would never fully understand.
Last November had been no different. She put together a quiet dinner at home and Sofia had drawn a (surprisingly well done for a five-year-old) scrapbook of pictures as a present for her Mama. It was a low key but enjoyable November night for their little family. Callie had even snuck in a little birthday sex, disguised as regular sex with a touch of kink.
The memory of it all made Callie feel horribly inadequate when she awoke on July 7th to a bouquet of sunflowers, a small plate of chocolate covered strawberries, and a birthday card all sitting on the pillow next to her. Arizona was absent but could be heard preparing breakfast in the kitchen.
With a sleepy groan, Callie rolled over and wiped the hair from her face, then picked up and opened the card. It was impossible not to smile at Sofia’s messy kindergarten writing that took up most of the inside. Below, Arizona’s fancy penmanship declared today Callie’s day, expressed her love, and promised more to come later that evening. Callie drew the flowers to her nose and breathed in deeply, unperturbed by their lack of fragrance and simply enjoying the freshness. She loved sunflowers.
The door to their bedroom burst open and Sofia came flying in ahead of Arizona, who was balancing a tray of orange juice, blueberry pancakes and espresso to go with the chocolate-covered strawberries. “Happy birthday, Mami!” Sofia squealed, leaping onto the bed and throwing her arms around her mother.
“Oof!” Callie collapsed back into her pillows and hugged the six-year-old tightly. “Careful, sweetie. Mami’s getting old.”
Sofia giggled and pulled away, then stood up and started jumping on the bed. “Guess what?”
Callie matched Arizona’s amused grin at their daughter’s antics. “What?”
“Mama says Nana and Papa are taking me camping!”
“They are?” Callie tilted her head at her wife. “I didn’t even know your parents were in town.”
“Yep,” Arizona confirmed, setting the breakfast tray on the side table before flopping down next to Callie. “They’ll be picking her up in an hour.” There was a secretive glint in her eyes, an unspoken acknowledgment that they now had the evening all to themselves.
Callie loved their daughter to pieces, but it had been ages since she and Arizona had had any time alone together outside of quick naps in an on-call room, where one of them would inevitably get paged away. A day for just the two of them would be a welcome surprise.
“In this camping scenario, are there bears?” she murmured, lifting an eyebrow while Sofia was distracted by the flowers.
Amused, Arizona leaned down and planted a firm kiss on her lips. “Yes, Calliope, there are bears in the state of Washington. But this is RV camping, because my mother refuses to sleep on the ground.” Much to her Marine father’s chagrin, but the man would do anything for his wife, including ‘camping like a sissy’ as he called it.
Callie was relieved to know that their small child wouldn’t exactly be roughing it out there with the predators. Even so, there was little doubt in her mind that Colonel Robbins could scare away a grizzly if the need arose.
“Remind me to book my birthday off next year so we can take advantage of the free babysitting,” she suggested.
“Not a baby…” Sofia grumbled in the background, eating one of the chocolate-covered strawberries when neither of her parents were looking.
Callie sat up slowly and indulged in a full-body stretch, groaning in satisfaction. She took one look at the treats surrounding her and broke out into a huge grin. “I knew I married you for a reason,” she said to Arizona, wiggling her fingers while trying to decide what to go for first.
Laughing, Arizona stood and hoisted Sofia onto her hip. “C’mon, baby girl. Let’s let Mami relax while we go clean your room and get ready for your grandparents.”
“Not a baby!” Sofia reiterated.
“You’ll always be my baby,” Arizona teased, planting a noisy kiss on her cheek.
Sofia made a face, her bottom lip protruding in a very distinct Torres pout, only to be sidetracked moments later by her mother’s breakfast. “Bacon!” she exclaimed, eyeballing the plate with envy.
“Mami’s bacon. You’ve already had yours,” Arizona chided.
“Sorry Sof. Birthday girls don’t have to share their bacon.” Callie winked and tossed the remaining piece into her mouth.
Squeezing the grumbling child in her arms, Arizona sashayed from the bedroom, pulling the door closed behind them to give Callie some privacy. Getting Sofia ready in the morning was a chore in itself and chores weren’t a part of birthday celebrations in this house.
Now that the room was quiet, Callie moved the breakfast tray to her lap and propped herself against a pile of pillows. She flicked the television on, idly surfing through news channels, enjoying the rare hour of pre-work downtime. As frustrating as Arizona’s birthday blues were, Callie couldn’t help but think that she would change her mind if she were the one in bed and Callie was chasing Sofia around the apartment with a pair of leggings in tow.
***
With Sofia shipped off for thirty-six hours and no responsibility to anyone but themselves after 5pm, the last place Callie expected to find herself was still working at half past six. Technically she could have escaped out the back with no-one the wiser, but Arizona was stuck helping with Karev’s backlog and had fired off a quick apology text. Rather than go home and spend the time alone in her pajamas - tempting as it was - Callie opted to remain behind and catch up on some paperwork.
Between ER coverage and a busy OR schedule, it was the first time she had been to her office all day. When she opened the door, she was greeted by forty overtly bright and unexpected flamingos - the inflatable kind - three of which toppled over and landed at her feet.
Callie stopped just inside the threshold of the office and blinked at her bizarre surroundings. “What the-”
“Happy birthday!” April Kepner trumpeted for everyone within a ten mile radius to hear, coming up behind Callie and throwing an awkward hug around her shoulders. “I was starting to think you wouldn’t see them until Monday.” She looked extremely pleased with herself and apparently missed the astonishment on the birthday girl’s face.
“Yeah, that would’ve been...bad,” Callie mumbled as she took it all in. She would have fingered Arizona as the culprit but it made sense that her wife’s clueless friend was behind the mess instead. Callie normally loved birthday surprises, only something told her that she would be the one stuck cleaning this up at the end of the day. Not to mention there was nowhere to sit until that happened, and she was really tired.
“There was supposed to be cake in the lounge but the bakery screwed up and gave it to the wrong person this morning,” April sighed, oblivious to Callie’s plight. She helped her push inside, nudging a few of the birds over with her foot. “It’ll be here on Monday instead, so today you get flamingos!” She raised her arms in a grand gesture of celebration.
“Thanks,” Callie said weakly, wondering how in the hell she was supposed to get to her desk. She didn’t want to be a total grouch, so she attempted to move a few of the ornaments politely to the side, only for two more to fall off the bookshelf and peg her in the face.
April winced. “I know it’s a bit much,” she began, wringing her hands together nervously.
“Aren’t lawn flamingos for old people?” Callie asked. She distinctly remembered doing the same thing for her Abuela’s 70th many years ago.
“Forty is a milestone, the party store had a packaged set and everything.” April’s pager went off before she could notice the glower being aimed her way. “Sorry, that’s the ER. Enjoy your birthday, Dr. Torres!” she said, stepping over a flamingo on her way out.
“Milestone my ass,” Callie grumbled. She took one final look around her office and sighed in resignation. “Screw it,” she declared, punting a pink bird out of the way and tripping over another as she shut the door behind her. Paperwork could wait over the weekend; what she needed now more than ever was a long and uninterrupted birthday nap.
***
Securing an on-room to herself, Callie stripped down to her underwear and fell asleep. After a very frustrating day full of morons and assholes - and a crapload of inflatable birds nesting in her office - she needed to recharge her batteries.
She was unconscious for all of ten minutes when Arizona texted her to come upstairs, giving no detail other than a cryptic ‘I’ll explain when you get here’. Callie was starting to worry that their fancy dinner reservation would turn into ordering pizza and falling asleep on the couch before ten o’clock. While that wasn’t an awful idea, it already resembled something they did five to six nights a week, and she refused to turn forty by acting like she was sixty and succumbing to the lull of her sweatpants. So she put on her scrubs again and shuffled off to the pediatric unit, ready to throw Arizona over her shoulder and carry her out those doors if need be.
They met outside of Arizona’s office. “Why am I here?” Callie whined, dragging her feet as they headed down a long corridor. “If it’s not an emergency, I’m gonna be seriously pissed. I put on pants for this.”
“Because,” Arizona said mysteriously. “I have a surprise for you.”
Callie continued to put up the resistance of a cranky toddler, pulling on Arizona’s arm. “I’m not sure a cool medical case counts as a birthday gift. Not unless it’s really, really good.”
“Would you stop whining until you at least know what it is?”
“Only the meanest wives give a girl work on her birthday.” Callie raised a pointed eyebrow.
“Then I guess you have the meanest.” Arizona stuck out her tongue and poked Callie in the side. They went left at a hallway junction and paused in front of a private patient room.
Callie’s brow furrowed as she took in the closed blinds. The peds unit was kept under closer surveillance than most wards and it was mandatory to always have a line of sight on the patient in case of emergencies.
“Remember our trip to New York two years ago?” Arizona asked, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
Callie frowned, wondering what that had to do with anything. “Yeah, of course. We saw ‘Wicked’ reprised and ran into Maury Povich on the subway.”
“Remember the leading lady?” Arizona’s carefully guarded expression started to crack. She was terrible at keeping secrets when they were exciting.
Confused, Callie allowed her wife to guide her to the window pane in the door. She peeked inside and audibly gasped. “No way.”
Arizona bounced. “Yes way.”
Callie flattened herself against the wall, mouth agape and eyes wide. “What the heck is she doing here?!”
“Some sort of guest spot in a Seattle production,” Arizona shrugged. “Her son came down with appendicitis so I operated on him this morning.”
“You operated on-”
“Yep.” Arizona beamed and took Callie by the arm. “Come on. She said to bring you by once I mentioned you were a fan.”
Callie dug her heels in. “What? No! I can’t go in there. That’s totally unprofessional.”
“Calliope, come on,” Arizona said urgently. “It’s your birthday and you’ve had a crush on her since we got married.”
“Since before I knew I liked girls,” Callie corrected, already feeling a touch of heat flame her cheeks.
“All the more reason not to be silly.” Arizona let her peek inside the window again. “She’s really nice and her kid is a riot. Honestly, they don’t mind.”
The more she thought about it, the stupider Callie felt standing outside a patient’s room, trying not to turn into a blubbering idiot. But she remembered that New York trip with Arizona very well and her love of Broadway had only amplified after seeing several shows in person.
Making the decision on Callie’s behalf, Arizona knocked on the door. When a voice answered, she took her wife by the arm and steered her inside before she could change her mind.
***
“Wow.”
Arizona puffed up triumphantly. “Yep.”
“Oh my god.”
She nudged Callie forward a step as they arrived at the peds desk. “Go on. Tell me I’m amazing.”
“You’re amazing,” Callie said without delay. “That was pretty cool.”
“Worth putting on pants for?”
Callie’s smirk was very suggestive. “Worth taking them off for,” she emphasized.
“Behave, Torres. We still have a five-star meal to get to before I can get you naked.” Arizona leaned across the desk to fish through the mess of charts littering the surface. “God, Alex is like a toddler that refuses to clean his room.”
“Put him in the naughty corner until he follows house rules.” Callie always loved watching Arizona smack Karev around. Her wife was the only person in this hospital he had any real respect for.
“It’s mostly his interns, which he’s supposed to be keeping an eye on,” Arizona growled, unable to find what she was looking for amongst the piles of loose paper. “It’s like asking a couple of six-year-olds to keep each other in line, honestly...”
Exasperated, she leaned back just as something small and lightning quick barreled into the side of her prosthetic, nearly knocking her over.
Callie caught her by the arm, helping her find her balance, and watched two boys in pajamas dart around them while clashing plastic swords together. They were too absorbed in making sound effects to even notice the collision.
One of the boys, who couldn’t be more than six, leaped behind Callie and used her as a shield. “Dr. Robbins, Brayden is cheating!”
“Am not!” Brayden, seven, contested hotly. He stood by Arizona’s side, sword extended, waiting for his foe to step out into the open.
“Whoa whoa whoa, hang on a second,” Arizona chastised, glancing between the two and pursing her lips with feigned authority. “What seems to be the problem here?”
The younger of the two, Christopher, clung to Callie’s leg, seemingly oblivious that she was an actual person he had yet to make eye contact with. “He hit me in the arm. ”
“Brayden,” Arizona scolded, fixing the older boy with her patented ‘Mama Robbins’ look. Callie had seen her guilt Sofia into admission numerous times with that very same one. “You know the rules. True pirates only fight with honor. Sword contact only.”
“Not my fault he’s too slow,” the culprit grumbled. “And real pirates have eye patches.”
“We’re fresh out of those,” Arizona mused while sharing a smile with her wife. “How long have you boys been out of bed?”
“Only a minute.” Christopher blinked innocently at the adults.
Callie tilted her head at the kid. “Hm, I don’t think I believe that. Dr. Robbins, do you believe that?”
Arizona slowly shook her head. “Nope. What should we do with the little rascals, Dr. Torres?”
Callie stooped over and plucked tiny Christopher from her leg. “I say we get ‘em to walk the plank.”
Giggling, Christopher settled happily in the pretty lady’s arms. “I can’t swim!”
“You can’t? What kind of pirate-in-training can’t swim?” Callie sighed. “Okay, I’ll let it go this once. But that means you need to get back in bed and get some rest for me, okay?”
Christopher pouted but didn’t put up any resistance. “Okay…”
Arizona took Brayden’s hand and together the four of them turned back to their rooms. They were only a few feet away from the nurse’s station - Christopher’s father and Brayden’s mom were watching from their respective doorways, making sure the kids didn’t cause too much trouble while enjoying the sight of them having fun. Both boys were in for similar cancer treatments, so Arizona had roomed them side by side for the duration and introduced the families. For the last few weeks, the boys had been inseparable any time they were allowed out of bed. ‘Pirates and Scoundrels’, as Arizona called it, happened to be their favourite game.
Callie went to deposit Christopher in his bed while Arizona led Brayden into his room.
“I swear he has more energy than I do most days, and I’m not the one getting chemo,” his mother, Angela, said to the pair. “Don’t suppose you have a lasso in that pile of toys?”
Arizona helped Brayden climb into bed and plugged in his IV again. She had given the nurses the okay to let the kids off of it for ten to fifteen minutes an afternoon if they were feeling okay and it didn’t interrupt any scheduled treatments. “I can look into it, but something tells me these two won’t get caught unless they want to be.”
Brayden looked rather pleased with himself. “Mom, when we go home, can Christopher come over and play?”-
“Of course, sweetie,” his mother replied, smoothing the hair back from his forehead. He hadn’t started to lose it just yet, though there was no telling when or if that would happen. “Right now, you should try and get some sleep.”
“But I’m not tired!”
“I am,” Arizona said earnestly, discarding the empty IV bag she had just replaced. “When you’re a grown-up, you’ll miss nap time. Trust me.”
Brayden made a face as Callie joined the trio. “Dr. Robbins isn’t lying. I would totally nap right now if I could.”
“Me too,” Angela said. Of the three adults, she definitely looked the most in need of some rest.
“See? You’re lucky you get to go to bed early and no one will make fun of you. Every time I close my eyes before dinner time, Dr. Torres here draws a marker on my face,” Arizona sighed.
Brayden cackled as though that were the best thing he had heard all day. “Really?”
“Oh, please don’t give him ideas,” his mother groaned.
“She’s kidding,” Callie said quickly, shooting Arizona a playful grin. “I only did that once, like five years ago, and it wasn’t permanent marker or anything.”
“You drew a mustache on my cheek,” Arizona pouted. “I didn’t even notice until I was getting ready for work the next morning.”
“You sound like my husband,” Angela said to Callie. “The two of you could get up to some trouble.”
“The only kind of trouble we’re hoping for tonight is a quiet dinner and some dancing.” Arizona checked Brayden’s vitals and ruffled his hair affectionately when everything seemed good. “It’s Callie’s birthday.”
“Happy birthday,” the boy’s mother exclaimed, pulling Callie into a quick hug. Her son had been in and out over the last few months, and she’d gotten to know the Torres-Robbins family by now. “That sounds lovely. I hope for your sake neither of you have to work tomorrow. Paint the town red on my behalf; I don’t remember the last time I had a dinner with my husband that wasn’t ordered by phone.”
“Well, we only get the chance once a year. This one won’t even let me celebrate hers,” Callie said, jerking a thumb at her wife. “It’s like pulling teeth or trying to make a horse drink water, or...whatever.”
Arizona rolled her eyes. “Callie…”
“I’m serious. If I so much as breathe the words ‘congratulations on being born this day seven-hundred years ago’, she gets mad at me.”
“Really?” Angela looked confused. “You don’t like your birthday?”
“I love my birthday!” Brayden spoke up. “Dr. Robbins, don’t you want presents?” He looked as though he couldn’t fathom turning such a thing down.
Arizona narrowed her eyes at Callie for causing a stink. “The last time you wanted to do something extravagant for my birthday, you suggested white-water rafting. Because there was a Groupon in your inbox that morning.”
“I was being facetious. You said you wanted to go on an adventure!”
“I said we should get out of the house more often,” Arizona corrected. “You trying to convince me to throw ourselves down a violent river was less than reassuring.”
“I get this same reaction if I suggest we go out for drinks with our friends after work on her birthday, by the way,” Callie said to Angela, earning a scoff from her wife.
“Brayden, you’re a spelling-bee champ, right?” Arizona asked her patient, smirking as she scribbled a note on his chart. “Can you spell ‘superfluous’?”
He scrunched his forehead. “Huh?”
“It’s weird, honey. Everyone likes their birthday,” Callie added.
Arizona pursed her lips and let out a heavy sigh. “You’re like a dog with a bone. Just drop it.”
Angela had to smile at their antics. “Can I make a suggestion?”
“Please do,” Callie said adamantly.
“Let the woman take you out on your birthday,” Angela agreed. “Maybe not boating, but somewhere nice and quiet. It won’t kill you and it’ll make her less likely to harp on the issue. It’s a win-win situation.”
“Thank you!” Callie cocked her head and tried not to smile too widely. “Would it help if my official birthday wish was that I get to take you out somewhere in November?”
Seeing that she was outnumbered had to make Arizona laugh. “Okay, okay, I’ll think about what you all said,” she relented, knowing when she was defeated on an issue. “But today is your day, Callie, so for now can we just focus on that? Please?”
Callie raised a hand and dropped the subject for the time being. “All right, deal.” She checked her watch. “We should probably get going anyway.”
“Enjoy the evening,” Angela said as she pulled up a chair beside her son’s bed. “Fill me in tomorrow so I can live vicariously.”
“Bye!” Brayden exclaimed, earning a smile from both doctors.
Waving farewell to mother and son, Arizona followed Callie out and headed downstairs to change into their street clothes, skirting quickly through the halls before something else had the chance to pop up and postpone their evening.
***
Despite the humorous argument, Callie was left feeling just as perplexed when it came to Arizona and her inability to bend on the birthday issue. She watched her wife out of the corner of her eye as they weaved between cars in the staff parking lot. “You’re still up for dinner, right? Because if you’re too tired or your leg is hurting…”
Arizona slipped an arm around Callie’s waist and steered her into a soft kiss. “Of course I’m up for it. I want to see you in a cocktail dress and treat you like a lady tonight.”
“Not too lady-like, I hope.” Callie wiggled her eyebrows as they stopped next to their car.
Arizona brushed a dark curl behind her wife’s ear. “Definitely lady-like,” she said softly, dispelling the sexual pretense with a gentler, adoring look.
Callie melted, finding herself just as enraptured with Arizona’s gorgeous blue eyes as ever. “It isn’t fair, you know,” she said carefully, leaning a hip against their vehicle. “You never letting me surprise you. Maybe I would understand if I knew the reason, but I just...I don’t.”
Arizona looked away. “I don’t need it to be a big deal, that’s all. I have you and Sofia, that’s more of a present than I could’ve ever hoped for.”
Callie wasn’t buying it. “I’m going to feel like an ass every time you treat me like a queen while I barely get to take you out for a good meal unless I hogtie and throw you in the back of the car. Times that by fifty years and I’ll start to get a complex.” She tugged on Arizona’s jacket.
Arizona sighed in exasperation, scrounging for an excuse. “I don’t know…I did get attacked by a clown once.”
Callie’s brow shot up. “What?”
“Oh yeah, it was awful.” Arizona fished out her car keys, distracted. “He chased me around the playground and it freaked me out, so I vowed never to have a birthday party ever again.”
“Uh-huh,” Callie deadpanned, refusing to budge when Arizona tried to open the driver’s door behind her. “Fallacious much? You are so full of crap.”
Arizona groaned and finally started to crack. They could stand there all night and volley back and forth, for if there was one person more stubborn and adamant than she was, it was the woman she had married. “It’s not something I actively think about,” she said, licking her lips. “I guess it’s...it’s stupid, but birthdays make me sad. They always have.” Arizona shrugged.
Callie’s gaze softened. “Sad?” she echoed.
Arizona took Callie’s hand and traced a thumb across her wedding band. “We moved every year when I was a kid,” she said matter-of-factly. “Once in a blue moon I got to celebrate my birthday with a friend I’d had for more than a few days, but for the most part, I didn’t know anyone. Birthdays were really lonely. I never really looked forward to them.”
“I’m sorry,” Callie murmured, squeezing Arizona’s fingers. She looked slightly confused. “Is that why you…?”
“No.” Arizona shook her head. “There were presents and family dinners when my dad was home, but my mom worked with the army wives while he was away. Usually it was just Tim and I for the day. We hung out and he always found us something fun to do, even if it was at home in our back yard. He made up games and stuff to keep me occupied from the fact that I had no friends.”
A lightbulb went on in Callie’s head. “Oh,” she said quietly, finally beginning to understand.
Arizona cast her eyes down at the pavement, feeling involuntarily nostalgic. “There were a lot of years where it was just the two of us. I don’t think I can remember a single birthday he missed out on before he…” She paused and tried to shake off the prickling of memories that threatened to creep up on her. By now this wasn’t anything worth crying over; she had taken care of that in the months and years following her brother’s death. Usually, she tried not to think about the past, so maybe Callie was onto something here.
Callie reached out in support but Arizona continued nonetheless. “My first year of med school, Tim couldn’t fly out to visit, so he sent me this ridiculous care package full of the most random stuff instead, just to make me laugh while I was in the middle of midterms. Even when he couldn’t physically be there, he never forgot about my birthday.” She looked sad all of a sudden. “He died a month later.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Callie whispered, stepping closer and hugging Arizona tightly against her body. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
Arizona smiled and buried her nose in the crook of Callie’s neck. “It’s okay. It just took me a long time to accept that he was gone, and I have, but birthdays are still the hardest. Sometimes I wake up thinking, for a moment, that I should expecting his phone call or something. All it does is remind me that he’s gone. Nick, too.”
Callie closed her eyes and rubbed a soothing hand along her partner’s back. “The last thing I want to do is make you sad on your birthday, but maybe celebrating it anyway would be how they’d want you to remember.”
“Yeah,” Arizona sighed, “maybe you’re right.” She knew it would never be something she jumped for joy over, but Callie and Sofia made her world better every day they were together as a family. Those two helped cushion the blow of all that she had lost over the years, and the losses were plenty.
“Tonight is different,” Arizona said firmly as she pulled back from the hug. “What would make me happy is to celebrate you. Our adorable daughter is with her grandparents, which means not only do I get to see you and your legs in a fancy dress and heels, but I get to take you out of it myself after we get home.” Nothing on earth could make her sad when the prospect of some very healthy and robust sex awaited their future.
“That I can agree to,” Callie smirked, thinking along the same lines as her wife. She was relieved that Arizona didn’t seem too upset over the conversation. “If we leave now, we can make it home in time to change. Can’t show up at a five star restaurant in jeans and sandals.”
“Hey, I only have one leg and I save babies for a living,” Arizona teased. “I dare them to try and kick me out.”
***
The restaurant was exquisite and reminded Callie why French cooking was some of her favourite. No one could call it calorie-friendly, but that night she dined like a queen and did so with a gorgeous woman sitting across the table. The mood was light and romantic, full of teasing and the relaying of stories, one of which caused Callie to spray water through her nose when she laughed too hard. The quiet atmosphere of the restaurant had them trying to suppress a flurry of giggles to no avail. Eight years together and they never found themselves bored of the conversation.
She hardly ever thought about Arizona as an amputee anymore; the heeled prosthetic and Arizona’s confidence made it impossible to tell just by watching her move. The only thing her wife was still tentative about was dancing in public, as natural instinct sometimes took over with what were now unnatural movements. Callie managed to squeeze in a few slow dances by the piano stage, where she was careful to lead with some slow, easy swaying, after which they sat down for dessert.
By the time they got home, it was after midnight and both ladies were exhausted, happy, and more than a little drunk. Arizona sat on the corner of their bed to take off her shoes, not trusting her balance after ingesting a couple of glasses of wine over dinner. She pulled her prosthetic off with a grunt and massaged her thigh.
Callie spotted the other, more comfortable model by the side table and picked it up. “Do you think you can stand for a few more minutes?” she asked tentatively, carrying it over to her wife.
Arizona’s leg was pretty sore by now but the flat foot was definitely easier to stand in. She slipped it on over her sock and took Callie’s hand to rise to her feet.
Smiling, Callie wrapped an arm securely around her waist and started to sway her hips, leading Arizona in a much more comfortable dance now that they were out of both heels and the public eye. “You look amazing tonight,” she stated, dropping her eyes down to wife’s cleavage, an involuntary response given the dress she was wearing. “All I could think about was how much I wanted you for dessert.”
“I don’t know, that chocolate mousse was pretty amazing,” Arizona said slyly, allowing her fingers to snake around Callie’s back and pull down the zipper of her dress.
Callie’s brow went up although her movements never slowed. “Merely a warm-up, my love. There’s no way I’m satisfied yet.”
“Good answer.” Arizona let the dress fall away from Callie’s torso and guided it over her hips, at the same time tilting her head and meeting her halfway in a kiss. Both hands ghosted across her wife’s heated skin and she didn’t need to open her eyes to feel the satin and lace present for the special occasion. A deep groan of approval rumbled up from her chest. “God, you are so sexy.”
Callie smiled and stepped out of the dress, deepening the kiss for a moment before she leaned back. “So, I look good for forty?”
Arizona peeked one eye open and snorted in disbelief. “Speaking as someone that hit that milestone two years ago, I’m going to hope that you’re being facetious again.”
“You age backwards, so it’s not the same.” Callie curved her palms around Arizona’s ribcage and mirrored her earlier movements with the zipper along the side of the blue evening dress. It dropped away to reveal a very enticing lingerie set, garters included, that left little but the best parts to the imagination. Her jaw just about hit the floor at the unexpected surprise. “Holy…”
“Happy birthday, Calliope,” Arizona husked, tilting her head back to nibble on her stupified wife’s lip, before taking her hand and walking them towards to the bed. “I think it’s time you opened your present.”
Callie could hardly form coherent thoughts, much less argue, and nodded enthusiastically as Arizona lunged forward in a kiss. She was barely aware of her legs hitting the bed, grasping Arizona tightly as they fell backwards in a tangled heap. A keening moan escaped as Arizona immediately found that perfect spot on Callie’s neck and latched onto it with her mouth.
“Happy birthday to me,” Callie groaned, fisting her hands in Arizona’s hair as she formulated all the ways she would repay this moment come November 8th.
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