FIC: Mark's Apology
Mark's Apology
Summary: Mark finally realizes his shortcomings and Sofia says her first word
Rating: R for language
Disclaimer: I swear on all holy fanfics that I own none of the copyrighted works or characters mentioned in the course of this fic, so help me Calzona.
Author's Note: So after fighting with my computer to let me post this for the past two nights, I come bearing two installments today. Continuing the Nothing to No One stories. ENJOY!
*********THREE MONTHS LATER*************
As much as Mark Sloan was loathe to admit it, the past eight months had been very difficult for him. His daughter was born prematurely and nearly died. His best friend didn't want him around her anymore. Actually, Sofia didn't seem to want him anywhere close to her either. Hell, even his reknowned Sloan charm had deserted him as he hadn't had sex in close to four months.
So while his life had been doing a slow nosedive, he'd taken up the hobby of people watching. Most people in the hospital just put up with him, didn't particularly like him...except for Callie Torres. That is until she told him to butt out of her life. At first, he'd been beyond pissed off about the situation. Surely someone at SGMW other than Callie gave a damn what was going on in his life. Unfortunately for him, there was no rallying the troops because Mark was sad and angry. More often than not, he was told to "grow the fuck up and get your head out of your ass". That was the polite version. As a result, people watching.
He watched Bailey, Meredith and Cristina support Callie through her separation with Arizona, while Blondie had that Carter guy, Teddy, and the knockout twins Kepner and Karev. Callie began courting Arizona through a ridiculous stuffed animal in mini scrubs. He thought it was the ugliest animal he'd ever seen and couldn't believe that Blondie was falling hook-line-sinker for the ridiculous ploy, but rethought his position when one of the OR nurses thought the gesture incredibly romantic. In a way it was. Whenever Arizona had a bad day and needed cheering up, that rodent was there with a "prescription" note for something to help ease her troubles. Some days, it showed up in her locker with coffee and a donut. Others a flower or for some reason a stick. He still didn't understand why a broken piece of tree would permanently place the Robbins Super Magic Smile in view for a solid week. Maybe Callie would explain it to him one day.
Even though he wouldn't admit it, it warmed his tiny heart to see his daughter's mothers so happy together. Yes. He could finally say with a straight face that he considered Arizona a full fledged parent of Sofia. Apparently his daughter thought the perky peds surgeon hung the moon and stars because she refused to sleep at night unless she heard Arizona's voice, a fact he didn't understand until two months ago.
*****Flashback*******
"Come on, kid. Just go to sleep already!" he whispered to the sobbing infant. He paced his living room bouncing her in his arms. "Do you just not like to sleep? Is that it? Every stinking time I have you overnight you do this crying crap and neither of us gets any rest." At a complete loss over what to do to stop the tears, he paged Callie 911 to his apartment. Within minutes, both Callie and Arizona were rushing through his apartment door. Callie's top was on backwards and Arizona's shirt was only partially buttoned, though that may have been because it was inside out. At least they managed to put some pants on, he mused.
"Oh my God, Mark, what's wrong with Sofia?" a frantic Callie screeched reaching for her baby. Both ladies started giving a brief but thorough physical exam to try to determine if she had any injuries. An injured baby was the only reason they could fathom him paging Callie SOFIA 911!!!
"She won't stop crying. I've tried everything you told me to do and nothing's working! The pacifier, the teething ring, the stupid lullabies, pacing the rooms, talking to her...she's just...AHHHHHH!" He pulled on his hair in frustration as he sank onto the couch.
Callie and Arizona both stopped and glared at him. With a practised ease, Arizona pulled Sofia out of Callie's arms. Immediately, the baby's cries lessened. Arizona just shook her head and took her to the Sloan apartment nursery. Once the blonde was out of sight, Callie stared Mark down. "You paged me 911 because she was crying?"
Mark flinched as though struck. "Well...yeah."
He didn't realize it was possible for her stare to become any icier until it did. "We thought there was something seriously wrong with her, Mark. I thought Arizona was going to pass out when she saw that page. You scared us senseless! And why? Why couldn't you handle something as simple as putting her to bed? You've been with her lots of times when she cries. Why was TONIGHT the night you had to pull a stunt like this? Were you deliberately twat swatting me?"
"She never stops crying!"he snapped. She jerked her head backwards and he softened his tone. "She won't sleep through the night. She's hasn't slept here at all. She stays up and cries.All.Night.Long."
She smirked at him. "Oh. Is that all?"
"Is that all?" he mocked mimicking her tone. "That's fucking everything! I need sleep to function, Torres, unlike McPerky in there who just needs sunshine and rainbows." He leaned back on the couch resting his head to stare at the ceiling.
Callie crossed the room to sit next to him. "She cries for me too, if it makes you feel any better."
"Then how do you deal with it?"
"Sofia likes to see or hear Arizona at bedtime. She will cry until she hears Zona's voice or see that ridiculously perky smile. Arizona was in surgery late one night and couldn't call like she usually does. All it took for Sofia too calm down was to listen to her voicemail recording. A five second spiel of Arizona's voice...that's all it took. I played it four times before she went to sleep." Callie smiled at her statement. "Sofia recognized her as her mother before either you or I fully did and Arizona fell for her just as hard. That's how I knew everything was going to work out."
"Are they? Working out I mean?"
"Yeah. We're getting there. I forgot how hard dating is." They both laughed. "But it's fun too. Not just relearning each other's likes and dislikes but also the why's. We're communicating better. Not as many arguments over stupid stuff. No more ranting for ten minutes and storming off without letting the other say a word. No more hiding in offices and supply closets and on call rooms just to avoid the other." Callie sighed with contentment. "There's one thing that could make all that better though."
"What's that?"
"If my best friend could support my relationship with Dr. McPerky and not try to drive a wedge between us at every opportunity."
In hearing Callie's words about dating Arizona, Mark realized his biggest problem with the blonde. It was jealousy. She had Callie in a way he never had, never would and frankly, never could. He couldn't BE the good man in a storm that Arizona was. He could never worship the Altar of Torres in a manner befitting the Latina the way Arizona had done penance for the past year. Hell, Robbins had literally gone to the ends of the earth and back for his best friend. Why couldn't he let the jealousy go? Why did he have to keep shoving Sofia's paternity in her face?
Callie sighed softly and rose from the couch. "I'm going to go tear my girlfriend away from the tiny human and we're going to be leaving now."
"Geared up for round two, huh?" he leered. Callie's face turned deep red in embarrassment. "I'm just saying, you two's clothes...kinda obvious. Plus there's the massive hickey on ur throat."
Callie's right hand moved to her throat in an attempt to cover the bruise. "Sometimes, I hate you." she said marching down the hall to the sound of his laughter.
*******PRESENT DAY**********
Currently, Mark was sitting in the hospital daycare watching Arizona play with their daughter. It was supposed to be Callie's day with Sofia but she'd been called in for a nasty pelvic fracture which required immediate surgery. Sofia had been sputtering sounds for a couple weeks and all three parents were sure she was gearing up to say her first word. No one wanted to miss that.
While Sofia was busy hitting a building block against the floor (a movement Arizona swore was Sofia's way of bashing faces with bricks), Arizona stood to ease the kink from her back. She had no sooner reached her full height when a tiny hand grabbed her leg. "Perk."
Mark and Arizona stared at each other in astonishment. "Did she just...?" Arizona's voice trailed when Sofia made a tugging motion and "Perk!" was said again. She lifted the baby hugging her tightly and burying her face in the little one's neck.
Mark stood abruptly his emotions running rampant over her face. Pride, wonder, pain, envy, jealousy. "There's something I need to do. Later, baby girl." he kissed the top of Sofia's head, then nodded at Arizona. "Blondie."
She watched the plastic surgeon leave the daycare. "What on earth is up with your daddy, kiddo?"
"Perk!"
She smiled at the little girl. "No, Daddy doesn't seem to have any of that." She placed the girl on the floor mat with a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Mommy loves you. Be good." She waved goodbye as she left and laughed when Sofia waved yelling "PERK!" Outside the daycare, Arizona texted Callie. our daughter's first word was perk! YAY! Hope surgery's going well. xoxoxox
***********TWO HOURS LATER*********
Callie approached Arizona at the ped's nurse's station. "So perk huh?"
Arizona flashed her dimpled smile. "Oh my goodness, Calliope, it was AMAZING! I'm so sorry you missed it."
"Well...tell me everything."
The pair started walking toward the daycare together. "Mark and I went in to see Sofia during our lunches. I was on the floor playing with her and the blocks."
"More smashing bricks practise?" Callie said arching her eyebrow.
Arizona bumped their shoulders together and continued. "Anyways, we'd been playing for awhile and my back started to get stiff so I stood to stretch. I no sooner got up than Sofia grabbed my pantleg and says 'Perk'. Mark and I looked at each other, each of us having this 'did that really just happen?' expression on our faces. Then, she started tugging and just kept repeating 'Perk!' Then, Mark got weird and left."
"Got weird how?"
"I can't really explain it. His daughter spoke for the first time and he rushed out of the daycare muttering about needing to do something." She shook her head as she opened the daycare door for her girlfriend.
Callie stopped abruptly just outside the doorway. "Oh my God."
Arizona let go of the door. "Calliope, what is it?"
"You were her first word. Oh my God! It makes perfect sense!"
"What? No I wasn't."
"Arizona, everyone in the hospital refers to you as McPerky. You said she was pulling on your pantleg. She was trying to get your attention.YOU were her first word!" Both women were grinning like Charlie Sheen in a hotel room full of hookers. Out of no where, Callie pressed the base of the palms of both hands to her temples, linked them on top of her head and started pacing the hall. "I am an IDOT! WHY didn't I see this?"
Arizona stared at her lover in confusion and followed her partway down the hall. "Callie?"
"Seriously!"
"Calliope, what on earth are you babbling about?"
"Mark! It's all so clear now."
Arizona was having a very difficult time following Callie's train of thought and the expression on her face showed it. "Why does Mark make you an idiot? I mean, it's true, but why are you the one saying it?"
Callie dropped her hands and stood with slumped shoulders in front of the blonde."Because I finally get it. I finally understand what you and everyone in the whole hospital has been trying to tell me. Mark is so freaking jealous of you and that's why he acts the way he does where you're concerned." She took a deep breath. "And because he's always been my one constant until you, because he was always there for me to put me together, I let his insecurities win over the love of my life and because of that I nearly lost you." She grabbed both of Arizona's hands and gave them a comforting squeeze. "I'm sorry, Arizona. I am so sorry for everything I've put you through because of Mark. I'm not going to apologize for Sofia though because that would be stupid and she clearly favors you above both of her biological parents. Mark and I... the sorbet...that's never going to happen again. In fact, if you ever leave me again, I may be forced to join a convent because you have ruined me for anyone of either gender."
Arizona leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend's lips. "Thank you." She turned toward the daycare center. Before they could enter, both surgeon's pagers went off with an identical page. Conference room A. Pronto. Mark. "Any ideas what that's about?"
"I'm just as clueless as you are." Ten minutes later, Callie stopped abruptly just inside the conference room. Mark stood at the front of the room with two men in gray suits. "Mark? What's going on?"
"Callie. Blondie. I'd like you to meet my lawyer, Jason Greensberg and his associate, Paul McWilliams."
"LAWYERS?! Are you fucking kidding me, Mark?" Callie yelled.
Mark crossed the room to stand in front of the two women. He tried to grab Callie's hand but she swatted it away. "Callie, I..." She turned her back to him. He turned his attention to Arizona. "Blondie, I..." Before he could continue, a right straight punch landed square on his upper lip. When his head snapped backwards, a left hook made impact with his left eye and he fell to the ground. He tried to get up, but Arizona placed her right foot square on his chest.
"I will not let you take my family from me, Sloan." She looked down at him, her face set with a determination the likes of which he'd never seen.
"I'm not!" he squeaked wiping the blood from his split upper lip. "I'm trying to do the right thing!"
Arizona removed her foot and offered him a hand. "You call lawyers the right thing?"
"Talk to them. Both of you."
Mark joined his lawyers on the left side of the table while Callie and Arizona sat on the right. Mr. Greensberg cleared his throat. "Mr. Sloan has approached me concerning establishing a permanent custodial solution in regards to the infant Sofia Robin Sloan-Torres." The two women bore similar looks of disdain mixed with hatred. Two copies of the same paper were pushed across the table. "It is my understanding an informal arrangement is already in place." All three parents nodded.
"Jason, if I could speak a minute, please." Mark interrupted. The lawyer waved for him to proceed. "I'm trying to be the better man here and I'm stepping aside. You two should be the day to day parents...the ones the daycare and the schools call first. I'm literally the odd man out here. At first, I was convinced Robbins was going to cut and run again, but she stuck. She's not going anywhere, Torres. She's really in it for the long haul." He wiped his cut lip with the back of his coat sleeve. "And you just saw her stick up for her family." He looked Arizona in the eye. "You aren't nothing to no one. You are EVERYTHING to my daughter. Her first word proved that to me, even though I was already beginning to realize it." He turned his focus back to Callie. "I'm not giving up all my rights or all my time with her. All I'm asking for is every weekend and a full week every other month."
Callie's jaw dropped. "Who are you and what did you do with Mark Sloan?"
Mark looked down at the table. "I've had a lot of time to do some serious soul searching in the past few months. After today, I knew what I had to do." He looked across the table and met Arizona's confused stare. "My only condition is that you move back into the apartment with Torres and Sofia. Callie's lost when you're not around and between the gossip and both of your appearances when you haven't shared a bed in several days I'd say you're probably not faring much better. So do everyone a favor and come back where you belong."
"I...I don't know what to say, Mark." Arizona said in shock. Her gaze settled on his bruised cheek and cut lip. "I'm sorry I hit you."
He shrugged off the apology. "Hey, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Now tell Callie you're moving home and sign the damn papers"
"I...I can't...not yet." Callie turned to face Arizona, fully shocked at the words that had just left the pediatric surgeon's mouth. Arizona grasped the ortho's left hand. "Don't get me wrong. I want to. Really I do. Just...can you give me and Mark a minute?" Callie nodded, and left the room without a word. "You can be such a manipulative ass at times." Arizona said to the surgeon across from her.
"What'd I do?"
"You know I've been house hunting. You were sitting there when I was talking to Teddy about it. You wanted me to spill all about it to Callie then and you're trying to get me to do it now. Tonight, I'm supposed to look at that house around the corner from Meredith's that's been on the market forever. Callie's mentioned liking it several times and I want to see how it looks inside before I make a decision. I think it could be the one. I can feel it, but I don't need the ultimatum, Mark."
"Wouldn't house hunting be easier with her by your side as you do it?"
Arizona thought for a minute and groaned to herself. This could not be happening. Mark Sloan was actually right about something. "Ok. You can bring Callie back in now." A few seconds later, Callie remained standing behind the blonde. "Are you ready to sign these papers?"
"What did he say to you?" Callie said coldly.
Arizona stood and grasped Callie's shoulders, forcing the Latina to look her in the eye. "I want to do this, Calliope, but there's something else I need to do first. I'm asking you to trust me on this. Give me a couple days to get things sorted."
Callie took a deep breath. "Ok." She nodded her head. "Ok. Tell me where to sign."
After all the i's were dotted and t's crossed, the three parents were standing around in the hallway outside of the conference room when Arizona was paged to the pit. She kissed Callie, then awkwardly hugged Mark. "Thank you." She whispered as she left the pair.
Mark stared at the retreating blonde's back. "This is me being supportive, Cal." Mark said softly. "It's taken me awhile to realize it, but she's good for you. You're good for each other."
"Thank you for being a grown up about this, Mark." He shrugged nonchalantly. "If you want, you can take Sofia for the night." she offered.
"I'd like that." When Callie started to walk away, his mouth moved before his brain caught up with it. "I know something!" Callie turned and stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "But I can't tell you. But if you happened to show up somewhere that's not on me, right?"
Callie's stare intensified. "What do you know, Sloan?"
He wrote an address on a post-it along with a time. "Don't ever say I don't support you again, Torres."
Summary: Mark finally realizes his shortcomings and Sofia says her first word
Rating: R for language
Disclaimer: I swear on all holy fanfics that I own none of the copyrighted works or characters mentioned in the course of this fic, so help me Calzona.
Author's Note: So after fighting with my computer to let me post this for the past two nights, I come bearing two installments today. Continuing the Nothing to No One stories. ENJOY!
*********THREE MONTHS LATER*************
As much as Mark Sloan was loathe to admit it, the past eight months had been very difficult for him. His daughter was born prematurely and nearly died. His best friend didn't want him around her anymore. Actually, Sofia didn't seem to want him anywhere close to her either. Hell, even his reknowned Sloan charm had deserted him as he hadn't had sex in close to four months.
So while his life had been doing a slow nosedive, he'd taken up the hobby of people watching. Most people in the hospital just put up with him, didn't particularly like him...except for Callie Torres. That is until she told him to butt out of her life. At first, he'd been beyond pissed off about the situation. Surely someone at SGMW other than Callie gave a damn what was going on in his life. Unfortunately for him, there was no rallying the troops because Mark was sad and angry. More often than not, he was told to "grow the fuck up and get your head out of your ass". That was the polite version. As a result, people watching.
He watched Bailey, Meredith and Cristina support Callie through her separation with Arizona, while Blondie had that Carter guy, Teddy, and the knockout twins Kepner and Karev. Callie began courting Arizona through a ridiculous stuffed animal in mini scrubs. He thought it was the ugliest animal he'd ever seen and couldn't believe that Blondie was falling hook-line-sinker for the ridiculous ploy, but rethought his position when one of the OR nurses thought the gesture incredibly romantic. In a way it was. Whenever Arizona had a bad day and needed cheering up, that rodent was there with a "prescription" note for something to help ease her troubles. Some days, it showed up in her locker with coffee and a donut. Others a flower or for some reason a stick. He still didn't understand why a broken piece of tree would permanently place the Robbins Super Magic Smile in view for a solid week. Maybe Callie would explain it to him one day.
Even though he wouldn't admit it, it warmed his tiny heart to see his daughter's mothers so happy together. Yes. He could finally say with a straight face that he considered Arizona a full fledged parent of Sofia. Apparently his daughter thought the perky peds surgeon hung the moon and stars because she refused to sleep at night unless she heard Arizona's voice, a fact he didn't understand until two months ago.
*****Flashback*******
"Come on, kid. Just go to sleep already!" he whispered to the sobbing infant. He paced his living room bouncing her in his arms. "Do you just not like to sleep? Is that it? Every stinking time I have you overnight you do this crying crap and neither of us gets any rest." At a complete loss over what to do to stop the tears, he paged Callie 911 to his apartment. Within minutes, both Callie and Arizona were rushing through his apartment door. Callie's top was on backwards and Arizona's shirt was only partially buttoned, though that may have been because it was inside out. At least they managed to put some pants on, he mused.
"Oh my God, Mark, what's wrong with Sofia?" a frantic Callie screeched reaching for her baby. Both ladies started giving a brief but thorough physical exam to try to determine if she had any injuries. An injured baby was the only reason they could fathom him paging Callie SOFIA 911!!!
"She won't stop crying. I've tried everything you told me to do and nothing's working! The pacifier, the teething ring, the stupid lullabies, pacing the rooms, talking to her...she's just...AHHHHHH!" He pulled on his hair in frustration as he sank onto the couch.
Callie and Arizona both stopped and glared at him. With a practised ease, Arizona pulled Sofia out of Callie's arms. Immediately, the baby's cries lessened. Arizona just shook her head and took her to the Sloan apartment nursery. Once the blonde was out of sight, Callie stared Mark down. "You paged me 911 because she was crying?"
Mark flinched as though struck. "Well...yeah."
He didn't realize it was possible for her stare to become any icier until it did. "We thought there was something seriously wrong with her, Mark. I thought Arizona was going to pass out when she saw that page. You scared us senseless! And why? Why couldn't you handle something as simple as putting her to bed? You've been with her lots of times when she cries. Why was TONIGHT the night you had to pull a stunt like this? Were you deliberately twat swatting me?"
"She never stops crying!"he snapped. She jerked her head backwards and he softened his tone. "She won't sleep through the night. She's hasn't slept here at all. She stays up and cries.All.Night.Long."
She smirked at him. "Oh. Is that all?"
"Is that all?" he mocked mimicking her tone. "That's fucking everything! I need sleep to function, Torres, unlike McPerky in there who just needs sunshine and rainbows." He leaned back on the couch resting his head to stare at the ceiling.
Callie crossed the room to sit next to him. "She cries for me too, if it makes you feel any better."
"Then how do you deal with it?"
"Sofia likes to see or hear Arizona at bedtime. She will cry until she hears Zona's voice or see that ridiculously perky smile. Arizona was in surgery late one night and couldn't call like she usually does. All it took for Sofia too calm down was to listen to her voicemail recording. A five second spiel of Arizona's voice...that's all it took. I played it four times before she went to sleep." Callie smiled at her statement. "Sofia recognized her as her mother before either you or I fully did and Arizona fell for her just as hard. That's how I knew everything was going to work out."
"Are they? Working out I mean?"
"Yeah. We're getting there. I forgot how hard dating is." They both laughed. "But it's fun too. Not just relearning each other's likes and dislikes but also the why's. We're communicating better. Not as many arguments over stupid stuff. No more ranting for ten minutes and storming off without letting the other say a word. No more hiding in offices and supply closets and on call rooms just to avoid the other." Callie sighed with contentment. "There's one thing that could make all that better though."
"What's that?"
"If my best friend could support my relationship with Dr. McPerky and not try to drive a wedge between us at every opportunity."
In hearing Callie's words about dating Arizona, Mark realized his biggest problem with the blonde. It was jealousy. She had Callie in a way he never had, never would and frankly, never could. He couldn't BE the good man in a storm that Arizona was. He could never worship the Altar of Torres in a manner befitting the Latina the way Arizona had done penance for the past year. Hell, Robbins had literally gone to the ends of the earth and back for his best friend. Why couldn't he let the jealousy go? Why did he have to keep shoving Sofia's paternity in her face?
Callie sighed softly and rose from the couch. "I'm going to go tear my girlfriend away from the tiny human and we're going to be leaving now."
"Geared up for round two, huh?" he leered. Callie's face turned deep red in embarrassment. "I'm just saying, you two's clothes...kinda obvious. Plus there's the massive hickey on ur throat."
Callie's right hand moved to her throat in an attempt to cover the bruise. "Sometimes, I hate you." she said marching down the hall to the sound of his laughter.
*******PRESENT DAY**********
Currently, Mark was sitting in the hospital daycare watching Arizona play with their daughter. It was supposed to be Callie's day with Sofia but she'd been called in for a nasty pelvic fracture which required immediate surgery. Sofia had been sputtering sounds for a couple weeks and all three parents were sure she was gearing up to say her first word. No one wanted to miss that.
While Sofia was busy hitting a building block against the floor (a movement Arizona swore was Sofia's way of bashing faces with bricks), Arizona stood to ease the kink from her back. She had no sooner reached her full height when a tiny hand grabbed her leg. "Perk."
Mark and Arizona stared at each other in astonishment. "Did she just...?" Arizona's voice trailed when Sofia made a tugging motion and "Perk!" was said again. She lifted the baby hugging her tightly and burying her face in the little one's neck.
Mark stood abruptly his emotions running rampant over her face. Pride, wonder, pain, envy, jealousy. "There's something I need to do. Later, baby girl." he kissed the top of Sofia's head, then nodded at Arizona. "Blondie."
She watched the plastic surgeon leave the daycare. "What on earth is up with your daddy, kiddo?"
"Perk!"
She smiled at the little girl. "No, Daddy doesn't seem to have any of that." She placed the girl on the floor mat with a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Mommy loves you. Be good." She waved goodbye as she left and laughed when Sofia waved yelling "PERK!" Outside the daycare, Arizona texted Callie. our daughter's first word was perk! YAY! Hope surgery's going well. xoxoxox
***********TWO HOURS LATER*********
Callie approached Arizona at the ped's nurse's station. "So perk huh?"
Arizona flashed her dimpled smile. "Oh my goodness, Calliope, it was AMAZING! I'm so sorry you missed it."
"Well...tell me everything."
The pair started walking toward the daycare together. "Mark and I went in to see Sofia during our lunches. I was on the floor playing with her and the blocks."
"More smashing bricks practise?" Callie said arching her eyebrow.
Arizona bumped their shoulders together and continued. "Anyways, we'd been playing for awhile and my back started to get stiff so I stood to stretch. I no sooner got up than Sofia grabbed my pantleg and says 'Perk'. Mark and I looked at each other, each of us having this 'did that really just happen?' expression on our faces. Then, she started tugging and just kept repeating 'Perk!' Then, Mark got weird and left."
"Got weird how?"
"I can't really explain it. His daughter spoke for the first time and he rushed out of the daycare muttering about needing to do something." She shook her head as she opened the daycare door for her girlfriend.
Callie stopped abruptly just outside the doorway. "Oh my God."
Arizona let go of the door. "Calliope, what is it?"
"You were her first word. Oh my God! It makes perfect sense!"
"What? No I wasn't."
"Arizona, everyone in the hospital refers to you as McPerky. You said she was pulling on your pantleg. She was trying to get your attention.YOU were her first word!" Both women were grinning like Charlie Sheen in a hotel room full of hookers. Out of no where, Callie pressed the base of the palms of both hands to her temples, linked them on top of her head and started pacing the hall. "I am an IDOT! WHY didn't I see this?"
Arizona stared at her lover in confusion and followed her partway down the hall. "Callie?"
"Seriously!"
"Calliope, what on earth are you babbling about?"
"Mark! It's all so clear now."
Arizona was having a very difficult time following Callie's train of thought and the expression on her face showed it. "Why does Mark make you an idiot? I mean, it's true, but why are you the one saying it?"
Callie dropped her hands and stood with slumped shoulders in front of the blonde."Because I finally get it. I finally understand what you and everyone in the whole hospital has been trying to tell me. Mark is so freaking jealous of you and that's why he acts the way he does where you're concerned." She took a deep breath. "And because he's always been my one constant until you, because he was always there for me to put me together, I let his insecurities win over the love of my life and because of that I nearly lost you." She grabbed both of Arizona's hands and gave them a comforting squeeze. "I'm sorry, Arizona. I am so sorry for everything I've put you through because of Mark. I'm not going to apologize for Sofia though because that would be stupid and she clearly favors you above both of her biological parents. Mark and I... the sorbet...that's never going to happen again. In fact, if you ever leave me again, I may be forced to join a convent because you have ruined me for anyone of either gender."
Arizona leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend's lips. "Thank you." She turned toward the daycare center. Before they could enter, both surgeon's pagers went off with an identical page. Conference room A. Pronto. Mark. "Any ideas what that's about?"
"I'm just as clueless as you are." Ten minutes later, Callie stopped abruptly just inside the conference room. Mark stood at the front of the room with two men in gray suits. "Mark? What's going on?"
"Callie. Blondie. I'd like you to meet my lawyer, Jason Greensberg and his associate, Paul McWilliams."
"LAWYERS?! Are you fucking kidding me, Mark?" Callie yelled.
Mark crossed the room to stand in front of the two women. He tried to grab Callie's hand but she swatted it away. "Callie, I..." She turned her back to him. He turned his attention to Arizona. "Blondie, I..." Before he could continue, a right straight punch landed square on his upper lip. When his head snapped backwards, a left hook made impact with his left eye and he fell to the ground. He tried to get up, but Arizona placed her right foot square on his chest.
"I will not let you take my family from me, Sloan." She looked down at him, her face set with a determination the likes of which he'd never seen.
"I'm not!" he squeaked wiping the blood from his split upper lip. "I'm trying to do the right thing!"
Arizona removed her foot and offered him a hand. "You call lawyers the right thing?"
"Talk to them. Both of you."
Mark joined his lawyers on the left side of the table while Callie and Arizona sat on the right. Mr. Greensberg cleared his throat. "Mr. Sloan has approached me concerning establishing a permanent custodial solution in regards to the infant Sofia Robin Sloan-Torres." The two women bore similar looks of disdain mixed with hatred. Two copies of the same paper were pushed across the table. "It is my understanding an informal arrangement is already in place." All three parents nodded.
"Jason, if I could speak a minute, please." Mark interrupted. The lawyer waved for him to proceed. "I'm trying to be the better man here and I'm stepping aside. You two should be the day to day parents...the ones the daycare and the schools call first. I'm literally the odd man out here. At first, I was convinced Robbins was going to cut and run again, but she stuck. She's not going anywhere, Torres. She's really in it for the long haul." He wiped his cut lip with the back of his coat sleeve. "And you just saw her stick up for her family." He looked Arizona in the eye. "You aren't nothing to no one. You are EVERYTHING to my daughter. Her first word proved that to me, even though I was already beginning to realize it." He turned his focus back to Callie. "I'm not giving up all my rights or all my time with her. All I'm asking for is every weekend and a full week every other month."
Callie's jaw dropped. "Who are you and what did you do with Mark Sloan?"
Mark looked down at the table. "I've had a lot of time to do some serious soul searching in the past few months. After today, I knew what I had to do." He looked across the table and met Arizona's confused stare. "My only condition is that you move back into the apartment with Torres and Sofia. Callie's lost when you're not around and between the gossip and both of your appearances when you haven't shared a bed in several days I'd say you're probably not faring much better. So do everyone a favor and come back where you belong."
"I...I don't know what to say, Mark." Arizona said in shock. Her gaze settled on his bruised cheek and cut lip. "I'm sorry I hit you."
He shrugged off the apology. "Hey, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Now tell Callie you're moving home and sign the damn papers"
"I...I can't...not yet." Callie turned to face Arizona, fully shocked at the words that had just left the pediatric surgeon's mouth. Arizona grasped the ortho's left hand. "Don't get me wrong. I want to. Really I do. Just...can you give me and Mark a minute?" Callie nodded, and left the room without a word. "You can be such a manipulative ass at times." Arizona said to the surgeon across from her.
"What'd I do?"
"You know I've been house hunting. You were sitting there when I was talking to Teddy about it. You wanted me to spill all about it to Callie then and you're trying to get me to do it now. Tonight, I'm supposed to look at that house around the corner from Meredith's that's been on the market forever. Callie's mentioned liking it several times and I want to see how it looks inside before I make a decision. I think it could be the one. I can feel it, but I don't need the ultimatum, Mark."
"Wouldn't house hunting be easier with her by your side as you do it?"
Arizona thought for a minute and groaned to herself. This could not be happening. Mark Sloan was actually right about something. "Ok. You can bring Callie back in now." A few seconds later, Callie remained standing behind the blonde. "Are you ready to sign these papers?"
"What did he say to you?" Callie said coldly.
Arizona stood and grasped Callie's shoulders, forcing the Latina to look her in the eye. "I want to do this, Calliope, but there's something else I need to do first. I'm asking you to trust me on this. Give me a couple days to get things sorted."
Callie took a deep breath. "Ok." She nodded her head. "Ok. Tell me where to sign."
After all the i's were dotted and t's crossed, the three parents were standing around in the hallway outside of the conference room when Arizona was paged to the pit. She kissed Callie, then awkwardly hugged Mark. "Thank you." She whispered as she left the pair.
Mark stared at the retreating blonde's back. "This is me being supportive, Cal." Mark said softly. "It's taken me awhile to realize it, but she's good for you. You're good for each other."
"Thank you for being a grown up about this, Mark." He shrugged nonchalantly. "If you want, you can take Sofia for the night." she offered.
"I'd like that." When Callie started to walk away, his mouth moved before his brain caught up with it. "I know something!" Callie turned and stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "But I can't tell you. But if you happened to show up somewhere that's not on me, right?"
Callie's stare intensified. "What do you know, Sloan?"
He wrote an address on a post-it along with a time. "Don't ever say I don't support you again, Torres."