Fic: Just Different
Title: Just Different
Author: nerdfightergirland donteatblue
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: T/PG-13
Summary: A series of shorts chronicling the pregnancy and birth of Callie and Arizona's second child.
Disclaimer: I am very glad to say that I don't own Grey's Anatomy or these characters. This is purely for enjoyment and I am not making any money from it.
A/N: The artwork was done by 2damnpretty2die, who did an amazing job on it. Thanks to my nephews, Moose and Goose, for loaning their birth stats and to Moose for use of his birthday.
With one final deep breath, Arizona flipped over the plastic strip in her hands and directed her eyes to the previously blank slot. “Pink! Callie, it’s pink! We did it!”
Callie, who had been sitting on the floor against the shower with her head buried in her arms, unable to handle the disappointment of the negative result she expected, looked up quickly. “Are you sure?”
Arizona knelt down and shoved the test into Callie’s hands, smiling with tears in her eyes as Callie’s mood perked up. “We’re having another baby,” Arizona whispered breathlessly. She placed a delicate hand over Callie’s lower abdomen as she leaned down for a kiss. Suddenly, the year of choices and trying and stress and big fat nos and disappointment all became worth it. They stared at each other silently for a few minutes with their faces inches apart.
“You know, the last time one of these turned pink for me, I spent the next half hour crying in the bathroom.”
“But Callie, you are crying in the bathroom,” Arizona noted as she brushed a few tears from Callie’s cheek.
“Happy tears. These are happy tears. I mean, last time, I had the baby I had always wanted, but it was definitely not the way I planned it. But this … this is just how I always imagined it.”
“We’re having another baby,” Arizona whispered again.
****
“Hi, baby.” Arizona’s lips brushed lightly against Callie’s bare abdomen, still totally flat, as she spoke to the tiny human only she and Callie so far knew was growing inside.
Callie threaded her fingers through Arizona’s soft hair and closed her eyes as she leaned back, basking in the careful adoration. She almost hated even to entertain the thought that this pregnancy was so different already. At this point in her first pregnancy, she was trying to figure out how she was going to deal with the news and how she was going to tell her future co-parents. Now, nearly four years later, she was back in this place, but everything was clear and certain and known this time. Or at least it seemed that way.
“We’re so excited. We’ve been trying to make you for almost a year,” Arizona continued. “This is your mama, by the way. I love you so much already. And the other grown up is Mommy. She loves you, too. Then there’s Sofia. She’s your big sister. She doesn’t know about you yet, but she’s been asking for a baby. She’s going to be such a good big sister. She’ll teach you all the important things in life, like how to drive your moms crazy and all her good manners and how to give super special hugs.
“I’m going to stop talking and let you sleep now, but we’ll talk more later. I love you.” Arizona pressed her lips firmly to her wife’s skin for a few seconds before repeating the action on Callie’s lips. “And I love you.”
****
“Are you tired?” Callie watched her wife stifle another yawn while turning the page of her book.
“Huh?” Arizona was brought out of her daze by the tone of Callie’s voice. “Tired? No. This book lost my interest, but I’m too lazy to get another one from my bag.”
The smirk that crossed Callie’s face said it all and before Arizona could act, her book was flying through the air, landing with a clunk somewhere by the bathroom door. “I take it you’re not tired.” Arizona grinned as her body was pulled until flush against her wife’s.
“Mmm, no, but I can think of better things to do with a night off than read.” Callie leaned up, nipping at her wife’s smile.
Arizona balanced on one hand as her other made its way down her wife’s body eliciting moans of approval from Callie. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Mmm, we can start there.” Callie’s moans grew as Arizona’s hand found its way under her shirt, except when her wife cupped her bare breast, the moans spilling from her lips were not what Arizona expected.
“What? Did I hurt you? Are you okay?” Arizona watched discomfort cross her wife’s face before tears began escaping from the corners of her eyes. Quickly, she removed her hand to wipe the pain away from her wife’s cheeks.
“Callie, what did I do?”
Turning her face from her wife’s stare, Callie fruitlessly tried hard to contain the tears. “It’s dumb. I’m sorry. You’re fine. I’m … I’m being dumb.” She flinched again when Arizona’s hand came to rest across her chest.
“Callie, Calliope, Sweetie, you’re crying. You’re not fine and I don’t let my wife call herself dumb. Talk to me.” Arizona didn’t know what she had done, but Callie looked in a small amount of physical pain and that was not cool.
“They hurt.” She sighed, bringing the back of her hand up to wipe her cheeks. “They … they hurt. I’m sorry. I’m ruining it. My breasts are ruining what could have been a perfectly wonderful night with my wife.” Callie knew it wasn’t a big deal, but to an over emotional pregnant woman, it was a very big deal and she couldn’t convince herself otherwise.
“Oh, Sweetie.” Arizona leaned in and kissed her wife’s tight lips. Of course they hurt. Callie’s body was changing and although she was far from rough, tender breasts were no joke, as any woman knows. “You aren’t ruining anything.” She rolled off of her wife and onto her side, capturing Callie’s legs in her own. “So your breasts are off limits for now. I’ll just have to worship the rest of you extra well so your breasts can see how much fun we’re having and come out to play again.”
When Callie laughed at her dorky wife, Arizona let out a sigh of relief before kissing her cheek. “Okay?” She traced her hands up and down her wife’s sides until the moans that started the night began spilling out once again through Callie’s pouty lips.
“Okay,” Callie agreed as Arizona’s hands found themselves pulling off her shirt, her small meltdown already a thing of the past.
****
“Callie! Let’s go. We’re going to be late and we still have to take Sofia to day care,” Arizona called as her anxious and antsy three year old twisted and pulled on her arm.
“Just a second!” Callie’s voice rang out from the bedroom.
“We don’t have a second. We’re late.” Arizona looked back down at Sofia and back at their bedroom door. “You wanted to walk together, but you’re going to make me late.”
“Arizona, come here! You have to see this!”
With a sigh and an exasperated look that made Sofia giggle, Arizona sat Sofia on the couch and instructed for her to stay where she was. “Callie, what is -- oh.” The sight on the other side of their door stopped Arizona instantly. Callie was standing sideways in front of the mirror without pants and her shirt pulled up over what was now a very slight bump. “You popped,” Arizona said in awe.
“I popped,” Callie confirmed with a smile. “I tried to put on my favorite jeans, but they wouldn’t button, so I took a look.”
Arizona closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around Callie’s waist from behind, resting her hands low on Callie’s abdomen. “You’re so beautiful.”
Callie placed her hands over Arizona's. It was finally real. If the pink line, the morning sickness, the emotional changes weren't proof enough, this made it really real. Resting her chin on her wife's shoulder, Arizona stared back at Callie's reflection in the mirror glowing as much as the pregnant woman. It was real.
****
“Sofia, come here for a minute. We need to talk to you about something.”
The little girl reluctantly but obediently left her toy blocks and pranced over to the couch to sit next to her beloved mama. She looked between her moms curiously.
“Sofia, do you remember when you asked if you could have a baby like your friend Sam? And Mommy and I said that we’d talk about it later?”
Sofia nodded silently. Sam was one of her best friends and had a six month old brother.
“Well, Mommy and I have some good news for you! We are going to have a baby soon!”
“Baby?” Sofia questioned.
“Yep. There’s a baby in Mommy’s tummy.”
Sofia’s eyes got wide and she fixed her gaze on her mommy’s tummy. “Baby?”
“Yeah, you want to touch it? You can touch Mommy’s tummy,” Arizona encouraged.
Callie took Sofia’s hand with her own and placed it on her belly just in time for Sofia to feel a firm kick. Her eyes grew even wider and she tried to pull her hand away. “It’s okay, Sofia. The baby’s just saying hi.” Callie held Sofia’s hand in place.
“Hi, baby,” Sofia said. Arizona reached around Sofia’s tiny body to add her hand to the mix.
“You can give the baby kisses, too.” Arizona leaned down to demonstrate, kissing Callie’s belly as she had every night since they found out they were having another baby. Sofia parroted her mama’s actions before showing off a wide grin.
“Mama. Baby.”
“Yep. We’re having a baby.” Arizona was speaking to Sofia, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from finding her wife’s. “We’re having another baby.”
****
“We could hyphenate. Or just give this one your last name.”
“Callie, no. It’s fine. This baby can be a Torres, too, just like his big sister. I promise you that I am 100% completely okay with that.”
Callie sighed and tried again. “But it’s different this time. We’re married now and we’re doing things differently now.” She was reluctant to declare just how they were doing it differently, but they both knew.
“I don’t want Sofia to feel different. We are already going to have to explain to our kids why Sofia has a dad and the others don’t. It’s just easier this way. Sofia was not for practice and she’s not any less ours. I love that our babies will have your last name. I will not love this baby any more or less than I love Sofia and the last name will not change how I feel even a little bit.” She brought both her hands around the pronounced bump, massaging in such a way that she knew would arouse movement out of her baby.
“Are you sure you’re okay with it? Anytime you want to take it back just say the word and this baby will be a Robbins.”
“I promise you that I want this. This baby, our baby, is a Torres, just like all the others will be. Just like our daughter already is, okay?”
“Okay,” Callie conceded with a smile.
****
Arizona stood in the threshold of their bedroom watching Callie from across the room. She couldn’t help but stare as her wife toted their daughter around on her hip while preparing for the day. Callie was gorgeous, simply gorgeous, as she talked with Sofia about being a big sister and how cool it was because she got to boss her siblings around and protect them too. Being a big sibling was totally cool. As much as Arizona loved her brother, she did not harbor the same feelings from her childhood having been the little sibling. She was left out and behind because she was the baby and that she would share with their soon to be new addition to the family. Sofia and Callie could bond over being the big sister and they’d bond over the secret life of second-born-child syndrome. Just the thought of their new baby made Arizona’s face break out into a huge grin. She did that a lot lately and Karev gave her a hard time for it. He said she was getting soft. No, that wasn’t true. Sofia had made her soft already, Arizona was just glowing like any mother-to-be. She glowed anytime she caught sight of her wife. She glowed when she saw her daughter. Arizona Robbins glowed. She went from awesome surgeon to awesome mom without ever looking back.
****
“We need to move,” Arizona declared, as if the thought had just occurred to her.
“What?” Callie looked up from the open femur fracture on the operating table.
“We need to move. We’re going to have another baby soon. Where are we supposed to put another kid? I know he’ll share our room for a while, but the apartment’s too small for all four of us to live there. So we need to move.” Arizona said all this while still focusing on operation. Callie, on the other hand, had stopped entirely to stare at her wife.
“And you thought that now was the best time to bring this up?”
“We’ve been so busy lately that we haven’t had much time to talk. Now’s as good a time as any.”
Callie stopped staring and resumed operating. “Okay. So do you have a plan in mind for how to go about this?”
“I may have looked at a few house listings.”
“May have, huh? Did you find anything that you like?”
“Maybe. And maybe, we might have an appointment with a realtor on our next joint day off. Don’t worry. I haven’t made any major decisions. I told the realtor only what you and I already discussed wanting. We can fill in the blanks when we meet him.”
“Okay. I love you, but can we finish operating now? We can resume this talk after we’re done here.”
****
All day long, Callie kept catching Arizona looking at her. She knew why, but that didn’t console her at all. As Arizona watched her from across the floor, Callie dropped her hand protectively onto the gentle swell of her stomach. She was 23 weeks and 5 days pregnant today, the day Sofia had been born. Arizona had had a nightmare the previous night, one of her worst. They were both a little on edge. Arizona hadn’t let Callie go anywhere by car for the last week. She tried to be subtle about it, offering to do grocery runs herself along with any other necessary errands. Callie let her, because she knew her wife did it out of love and concern. She just hoped that once this day was over, Arizona would start to relax. Driving was unavoidable. She'd spent weeks dealing with bouts of anxiety herself, but they couldn't live in a state of panic. It had to stop today because they couldn't survive the next sixteen or so weeks this way. Tomorrow, she would tackle this head on. Tomorrow, they would go for a leisurely drive even if Callie had to hit her wife over the head and fold her unconscious body into the car. But for today, she'd let Arizona be protective and overbearing because today it was her turn to be a little crazy.
****
“Strawberries!” Callie sat up with a start, staring down at her still sleeping wife. She gave Arizona a sharp nudge to her side. “Arizona, wake up!”
Arizona sat up far too quickly then leaned back as the dizziness overwhelmed her. “Calliope, what?” she snapped, sounding harsher than she had intended.
Callie ignored her wife’s tone and simply nudged her again. “I need strawberries.”
“Are you kidding me? We have five different kinds of fruit in this place and you need the ONE FRUIT we don’t have? Can’t it wait until morning? Don’t you have tomorrow off?” Arizona started to burrow herself back under the warm covers until she was rudely interrupted by a small poke to her side.
“I need strawberries. Now. Please.”
“Can’t you go get them yourself? You can drive.” Once Arizona had gotten over the week 23 driving anxiety, things had more or less gone back to normal for them.
In response, Callie grabbed Arizona’s hand and placed it low on her belly. It was a surefire way these days to get Arizona to do anything Callie wanted.
“Mean!” was the muffled response from the face now buried in the pillow.
“Strawberries,” Callie said simply to reply. With a loud groan, Arizona lifted herself off the bed and drunk-stumbled over to her dresser to pull out some suitable clothing for a trip to the store. She dressed in silence, then leaned in to kiss her already drowsy again wife before she picked up her keys and left.
When Arizona got back, she scrambled in the fridge to find some whipped cream to go with the strawberries before taking the whole treat back into the bedroom.
She blinked slowly a few times to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. Their sheets were mostly thrown off the bed, which sat mockingly empty. “Callie?” She went back out to the living room to see if Callie had gotten restless in the big bed and moved to the couch. It, too, was empty.
Callie wasn’t on-call, so Arizona knew she wasn’t in the hospital. In a moment of panic, she slammed the whipped cream and strawberries on the counter and bolted into Sofia’s room. She found her beloved baby still sleeping soundly in her big girl bed. She ran back into the living room, more panicked than ever. Callie would NEVER leave Sofia alone if she had to leave. She was just beginning to contemplate calling the police when Callie appeared at the door, strawberries in hand, happily munching away.
“Callie!? Where the hell were you? I was worried sick. Where did you go?”
Callie at least had the brains to look sheepish. “After you left, I was just lying there, craving strawberries, and then I remembered that Mark had some in his fridge. So, uh, I went to get his. I’m sorry.”
“Callie, you scared me to death,” she scolded, carefully keeping her voice both stern and quiet, mindful of the sleeping toddler not so far away.
“I’m sorry. I just really needed some strawberries. I was right across the hall. I came right back.”
“It’s fine. Let’s just go back to bed and tomorrow we can talk about how you took 10 years off my life in one evening.”
****
Callie growled in frustration as she tried to button her pants. There was no way she’d outgrown yet another pair of pants. She began jumping with as much effort as she could muster, desperately trying to force her way into the pants that had fit her just a week ago.
That was how Arizona found her when she wandered back into the bedroom to see what was keeping her wife. She giggled as her wife bounced around the room, trying and failing to fit the pants around her protruding belly. Callie continued to bounce until she overcorrected and she tumbled onto the floor.
Arizona immediately jumped to action. “Callie! Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“Yeah, baby’s fine. Aside from my bruised pride, I’m okay, too.” Callie hung her head as Arizona assessed her body for injuries. “Why don’t any of my clothes fit anymore? I just bought those pants. They can’t already be too small.”
“You’re pregnant, Callie. You’re growing our baby, emphasis on the growing. We knew you’d grow out of these pants. That’s why we have the bigger pants.” She lifted herself off the floor and went to grab a pair of pants the next size up from their closet.
“I feel fat.”
“You’re not fat. You are pregnant and you are beautiful.” Arizona helped Callie strip off the too-small jeans. Callie went to pick up the larger pair to slip them on, but Arizona stopped her and kissed her as she grabbed the pants herself and pulled them slowly up Callie’s legs, kissing the inside of her knees and then her thighs as she went. “You are beautiful,” Arizona repeated as she pulled Callie’s jeans over her hips and fastened the button.
****
It had been a long day for Callie and her little bundle of joy was not being very joyous at the moment. Halfway through surgery, he decided to let his presence be known in the most obnoxious way possible and he hadn’t quit since.
“Ugh.” Callie cringed as a little, itty, bitty, baby foot came into contact with what she assumed was her liver for the umpteenth time that day.
“Mommy okay?” Sofia looked worried.
“Mommy’s … ow! Stop it this instance, little one, or I’m going to eat something spicy.” Callie looked up at the horrified look on her daughter’s face. “Mommy’s fine, Sofia.”
“Ow!” Callie rubbed her stomach as the kicking continued.
Sofia watched as her mommy continued to cringe. Getting up, she slowly made her way over to where Callie was sitting and before her mommy knew what was going on, the three-year-old’s not so gentle hand came into contact with her stomach. “Bad baby. Don’t hurt Mommy. Time out!”
Arizona walked in at the exact moment her daughter swatted her wife. Trying hard not to laugh at the scene or the shocked expression her wife was sporting, Arizona walked over to her daughter, grabbing her by the arm and leading her to the couch.
“Sofia Robbin, we do not hit in this house. Hitting is bad and you know better.” While it was the cutest thing ever seeing her daughter defend her wife, it had to be nipped in the bud before it became a future issue.
“Baby hurt Mommy!” Sofia’s eyes filled with tears.
“Sofia, the baby is just moving and Mommy’s okay. Right, Mommy?”
Callie nodded, her eyes still wide in shock that their normally docile daughter just hit her. Hit them. It was more a surprise than painful, but she was still shocked.
“Ow.” She gritted her teeth, trying not to make a big deal about their child tap dancing on her internal organs. Apparently this was too upsetting to Sofia.
“Bad baby!” Sofia yelled.
“Sofia!”
“I didn’t hit.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, Sofia. You need to go apologize to Mommy and the baby and we’re going to go have our own time out because hitting is bad. We don’t hit in this house and you know better.” Arizona hated being the bad guy.
Slowly making her way over to where Callie was seated, she looked at her shoes and whispered, “Sorry, Mommy.”
“It’s okay, just don’t do it again.”
“And …” Arizona stood waiting.
Leaning in she rubbed at Callie’s round belly. Whispering in a three-year-old stage whisper, “Hitting is bad, baby. Time out, too.”
“Sofia!”
“I sorry.” She continued to hang her head in shame, which was probably for the better since both mothers were trying very hard not to laugh at her antics.
It was cute. Bad. Inappropriate. But cute.
As the two walked toward Sofia’s bedroom, Callie let out another groan. “If you don’t settle down, Mommy’s going to eat spicy food and then nobody’ll be happy!”
“Calliope, what did I just say about two wrongs don’t make a right?” Arizona turned toward her wife, scolding her.
“I sorry.” Callie mimicked her daughter, hanging her head in shame causing Arizona to bust out a laugh at the pair of them.
****
She knew her wife wasn’t asleep by the lack of labored breathing. Since she wasn’t asleep or anywhere near tired, Arizona decided to take advantage of a baby-free night with her wife. Trailing her fingers up and over Callie’s blanket covered legs, Arizona leaned over her wife’s body and nipped lightly at her exposed earlobe.
“Not tonight.” Callie tensed under her wife’s touch before rolling out of reach.
“You said that last night.” Arizona was flabbergasted that for what felt like the millionth time her advances were being rejected by her wife.
“Can’t we just get some sleep before this baby decides to tap dance on my bladder and wake me up at the butt crack of dawn?”
“Callie,” Arizona sighed. “Please? I miss you.” She scooted closer to her wife’s stiff body again. Her fingers traced lightly through the blankets, this time across Callie’s chest.
“God, no, Arizona. Just, just don’t touch me.”
At first, anger filled the blonde as her wife threw her arm aside and sat up, grabbing for her pillows to leave the room. This wasn’t happening again. She did everything she could to cater to her wife’s mood swings and the hormones pregnancy brought, but Callie acted like she had the plague every time she went to touch her wife. It wasn’t until Callie was halfway to the door that it clicked for her. Memories of Sofia’s pregnancy hit her like a truck and she was flooded with guilt.
“Callie, come back here.” When Callie didn’t slow down, Arizona jumped up, racing to grab her wife before Callie could open the door. “Hey.” Arizona turned Callie toward her and forced her to make eye contact. “You are the sexiest, most heavenly, sensational, alluring, beautiful woman I have ever known.” She slid her hands slowly down Callie’s sides. “All I ever want to do is worship you, show you how much I love you. And being pregnant? Yeah, that just makes you sexier. Every time I catch sight of you getting out of the shower or changing your clothes, I’m in awe of just how beautiful you are and that you’re mine. Please, just let me show you how much I love you. It doesn’t have to be tonight. We can just sleep tonight if that’s what you really want, but don’t pull away because you don’t think you’re beautiful, because I think you’re breathtaking. I promise.” With that, Arizona leaned in for a kiss. When Callie responded in kind, Arizona felt confident enough to make another move to take things further. This time, Callie reciprocated instead of pulling back and soon they were tumbling (much less gracefully for Callie) back into their bed in a heated embrace.
****
It took three tries and a helping hand from Arizona to get Callie off the bed, as it did almost every day at this point. She was 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant today and showing no signs of pending delivery. She had gone on maternity leave weeks before, unable to handle the long shifts with the added weight of her second child. She loved her temporary role as stay at home wife and mom which was fortunate as this baby didn’t seem in any kind of rush to meet them. Not that Callie was complaining. She’d deal with the soreness and back pain and discomfort for as long it took. She wasn’t going to let anyone convince her to let medicine intervene. Not that they hadn’t tried. Their OB had tried. Arizona had tried. Bailey even took a shot at it. But Callie had stood firm. This baby was not coming out until she (or he, as they’d decided once again not to know the sex) was good and ready. She’d already had a baby come early and it was not an experience she ever wanted to repeat. So they were going to wait.
Arizona was going to have to put up with her own issues because as long as Callie was carrying this baby, she got the final say. She got it, she really did. She understood her wife’s worries over statistics and facts surrounding pregnancy, labor, and delivery, but those meant nothing to a mother who knew her baby just wasn’t ready to come yet. Soon, but not yet.
****
“Dr. Robbins, you’re being paged,” Arizona’s scrub nurse, Deb, informed her.
“Crap. I just opened. Can you check it?” Since one week before the due date, Arizona had been doing only short, routine procedures so that she could be available when Callie went into labor. She had delayed going on full maternity leave, wanting to be able to take as much time after the baby even if that meant less time off before the baby was born. It ended up being a wise choice as this baby, already as stubborn as both moms, was still hanging on at 41 weeks, 2 days.
“It’s your wife. She’s here. It’s baby time!” By this point, Arizona’s whole staff was well-versed on the procedures for baby time. While she took a moment to pause and think about how she was finally going to meet her second child soon, the surgical team around her was already moving. Her fellow stepped in to take over operating and she rushed to scrub out.
In the scrub room, she took a quiet moment to contemplate exactly what was happening. They were having a baby. They’d missed out on this part before. Sofia’s birth had been rushed and terrifying and everything a birth never should be. Sofia was so sick for so long. This baby was healthy, strong, big. After taking a few more moments to collect herself and finish scrubbing out, she raced out the door to her wife’s side.
****
Callie squeezed Arizona’s hand as hard as she could as she pushed. She was exhausted. She felt like she had been pushing for days. Finally, the pressure between her legs disappeared as her second child came into the world. She leaned her head toward her wife as Arizona came up to whisper about how proud she was. After a quick kiss on the forehead, Arizona went back to see their newest addition. She took a quick look before cutting the cord and cradling her newborn.
“It’s a girl!” Arizona announced happily as she gazed in wonder at the newborn in her arms. “We have another girl.” She quickly looked over her wailing newborn, committing every second of this to memory. At an impatient motion from Callie, she carefully placed the newborn on Callie’s gowned chest.
Callie cried as she looked at her daughter. “Hi, baby. Oh, Arizona. She’s so perfect.” She looked back up at her wife, whose eyes were also full of tears. “Come here. Come look at our daughter.”
Arizona leaned down to press her head to Callie’s, giving her a good angle to see the baby’s face. She was wailing, unhappy at being disturbed from her happy former home.
“Thank you,” Arizona whispered. “Thank you for her and for Sofia. You’re so amazing.”
“We’re amazing.”
**********
Leah Marie Torres
Daughter of Proud Mothers Arizona Robbins and Calliope Torres
13 November 2014
3:13 PM
7 lbs., 5 oz.
19.5 inches long
Author: nerdfightergirland donteatblue
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: T/PG-13
Summary: A series of shorts chronicling the pregnancy and birth of Callie and Arizona's second child.
Disclaimer: I am very glad to say that I don't own Grey's Anatomy or these characters. This is purely for enjoyment and I am not making any money from it.
A/N: The artwork was done by 2damnpretty2die, who did an amazing job on it. Thanks to my nephews, Moose and Goose, for loaning their birth stats and to Moose for use of his birthday.
With one final deep breath, Arizona flipped over the plastic strip in her hands and directed her eyes to the previously blank slot. “Pink! Callie, it’s pink! We did it!”
Callie, who had been sitting on the floor against the shower with her head buried in her arms, unable to handle the disappointment of the negative result she expected, looked up quickly. “Are you sure?”
Arizona knelt down and shoved the test into Callie’s hands, smiling with tears in her eyes as Callie’s mood perked up. “We’re having another baby,” Arizona whispered breathlessly. She placed a delicate hand over Callie’s lower abdomen as she leaned down for a kiss. Suddenly, the year of choices and trying and stress and big fat nos and disappointment all became worth it. They stared at each other silently for a few minutes with their faces inches apart.
“You know, the last time one of these turned pink for me, I spent the next half hour crying in the bathroom.”
“But Callie, you are crying in the bathroom,” Arizona noted as she brushed a few tears from Callie’s cheek.
“Happy tears. These are happy tears. I mean, last time, I had the baby I had always wanted, but it was definitely not the way I planned it. But this … this is just how I always imagined it.”
“We’re having another baby,” Arizona whispered again.
****
“Hi, baby.” Arizona’s lips brushed lightly against Callie’s bare abdomen, still totally flat, as she spoke to the tiny human only she and Callie so far knew was growing inside.
Callie threaded her fingers through Arizona’s soft hair and closed her eyes as she leaned back, basking in the careful adoration. She almost hated even to entertain the thought that this pregnancy was so different already. At this point in her first pregnancy, she was trying to figure out how she was going to deal with the news and how she was going to tell her future co-parents. Now, nearly four years later, she was back in this place, but everything was clear and certain and known this time. Or at least it seemed that way.
“We’re so excited. We’ve been trying to make you for almost a year,” Arizona continued. “This is your mama, by the way. I love you so much already. And the other grown up is Mommy. She loves you, too. Then there’s Sofia. She’s your big sister. She doesn’t know about you yet, but she’s been asking for a baby. She’s going to be such a good big sister. She’ll teach you all the important things in life, like how to drive your moms crazy and all her good manners and how to give super special hugs.
“I’m going to stop talking and let you sleep now, but we’ll talk more later. I love you.” Arizona pressed her lips firmly to her wife’s skin for a few seconds before repeating the action on Callie’s lips. “And I love you.”
****
“Are you tired?” Callie watched her wife stifle another yawn while turning the page of her book.
“Huh?” Arizona was brought out of her daze by the tone of Callie’s voice. “Tired? No. This book lost my interest, but I’m too lazy to get another one from my bag.”
The smirk that crossed Callie’s face said it all and before Arizona could act, her book was flying through the air, landing with a clunk somewhere by the bathroom door. “I take it you’re not tired.” Arizona grinned as her body was pulled until flush against her wife’s.
“Mmm, no, but I can think of better things to do with a night off than read.” Callie leaned up, nipping at her wife’s smile.
Arizona balanced on one hand as her other made its way down her wife’s body eliciting moans of approval from Callie. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Mmm, we can start there.” Callie’s moans grew as Arizona’s hand found its way under her shirt, except when her wife cupped her bare breast, the moans spilling from her lips were not what Arizona expected.
“What? Did I hurt you? Are you okay?” Arizona watched discomfort cross her wife’s face before tears began escaping from the corners of her eyes. Quickly, she removed her hand to wipe the pain away from her wife’s cheeks.
“Callie, what did I do?”
Turning her face from her wife’s stare, Callie fruitlessly tried hard to contain the tears. “It’s dumb. I’m sorry. You’re fine. I’m … I’m being dumb.” She flinched again when Arizona’s hand came to rest across her chest.
“Callie, Calliope, Sweetie, you’re crying. You’re not fine and I don’t let my wife call herself dumb. Talk to me.” Arizona didn’t know what she had done, but Callie looked in a small amount of physical pain and that was not cool.
“They hurt.” She sighed, bringing the back of her hand up to wipe her cheeks. “They … they hurt. I’m sorry. I’m ruining it. My breasts are ruining what could have been a perfectly wonderful night with my wife.” Callie knew it wasn’t a big deal, but to an over emotional pregnant woman, it was a very big deal and she couldn’t convince herself otherwise.
“Oh, Sweetie.” Arizona leaned in and kissed her wife’s tight lips. Of course they hurt. Callie’s body was changing and although she was far from rough, tender breasts were no joke, as any woman knows. “You aren’t ruining anything.” She rolled off of her wife and onto her side, capturing Callie’s legs in her own. “So your breasts are off limits for now. I’ll just have to worship the rest of you extra well so your breasts can see how much fun we’re having and come out to play again.”
When Callie laughed at her dorky wife, Arizona let out a sigh of relief before kissing her cheek. “Okay?” She traced her hands up and down her wife’s sides until the moans that started the night began spilling out once again through Callie’s pouty lips.
“Okay,” Callie agreed as Arizona’s hands found themselves pulling off her shirt, her small meltdown already a thing of the past.
****
“Callie! Let’s go. We’re going to be late and we still have to take Sofia to day care,” Arizona called as her anxious and antsy three year old twisted and pulled on her arm.
“Just a second!” Callie’s voice rang out from the bedroom.
“We don’t have a second. We’re late.” Arizona looked back down at Sofia and back at their bedroom door. “You wanted to walk together, but you’re going to make me late.”
“Arizona, come here! You have to see this!”
With a sigh and an exasperated look that made Sofia giggle, Arizona sat Sofia on the couch and instructed for her to stay where she was. “Callie, what is -- oh.” The sight on the other side of their door stopped Arizona instantly. Callie was standing sideways in front of the mirror without pants and her shirt pulled up over what was now a very slight bump. “You popped,” Arizona said in awe.
“I popped,” Callie confirmed with a smile. “I tried to put on my favorite jeans, but they wouldn’t button, so I took a look.”
Arizona closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around Callie’s waist from behind, resting her hands low on Callie’s abdomen. “You’re so beautiful.”
Callie placed her hands over Arizona's. It was finally real. If the pink line, the morning sickness, the emotional changes weren't proof enough, this made it really real. Resting her chin on her wife's shoulder, Arizona stared back at Callie's reflection in the mirror glowing as much as the pregnant woman. It was real.
****
“Sofia, come here for a minute. We need to talk to you about something.”
The little girl reluctantly but obediently left her toy blocks and pranced over to the couch to sit next to her beloved mama. She looked between her moms curiously.
“Sofia, do you remember when you asked if you could have a baby like your friend Sam? And Mommy and I said that we’d talk about it later?”
Sofia nodded silently. Sam was one of her best friends and had a six month old brother.
“Well, Mommy and I have some good news for you! We are going to have a baby soon!”
“Baby?” Sofia questioned.
“Yep. There’s a baby in Mommy’s tummy.”
Sofia’s eyes got wide and she fixed her gaze on her mommy’s tummy. “Baby?”
“Yeah, you want to touch it? You can touch Mommy’s tummy,” Arizona encouraged.
Callie took Sofia’s hand with her own and placed it on her belly just in time for Sofia to feel a firm kick. Her eyes grew even wider and she tried to pull her hand away. “It’s okay, Sofia. The baby’s just saying hi.” Callie held Sofia’s hand in place.
“Hi, baby,” Sofia said. Arizona reached around Sofia’s tiny body to add her hand to the mix.
“You can give the baby kisses, too.” Arizona leaned down to demonstrate, kissing Callie’s belly as she had every night since they found out they were having another baby. Sofia parroted her mama’s actions before showing off a wide grin.
“Mama. Baby.”
“Yep. We’re having a baby.” Arizona was speaking to Sofia, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from finding her wife’s. “We’re having another baby.”
****
“We could hyphenate. Or just give this one your last name.”
“Callie, no. It’s fine. This baby can be a Torres, too, just like his big sister. I promise you that I am 100% completely okay with that.”
Callie sighed and tried again. “But it’s different this time. We’re married now and we’re doing things differently now.” She was reluctant to declare just how they were doing it differently, but they both knew.
“I don’t want Sofia to feel different. We are already going to have to explain to our kids why Sofia has a dad and the others don’t. It’s just easier this way. Sofia was not for practice and she’s not any less ours. I love that our babies will have your last name. I will not love this baby any more or less than I love Sofia and the last name will not change how I feel even a little bit.” She brought both her hands around the pronounced bump, massaging in such a way that she knew would arouse movement out of her baby.
“Are you sure you’re okay with it? Anytime you want to take it back just say the word and this baby will be a Robbins.”
“I promise you that I want this. This baby, our baby, is a Torres, just like all the others will be. Just like our daughter already is, okay?”
“Okay,” Callie conceded with a smile.
****
Arizona stood in the threshold of their bedroom watching Callie from across the room. She couldn’t help but stare as her wife toted their daughter around on her hip while preparing for the day. Callie was gorgeous, simply gorgeous, as she talked with Sofia about being a big sister and how cool it was because she got to boss her siblings around and protect them too. Being a big sibling was totally cool. As much as Arizona loved her brother, she did not harbor the same feelings from her childhood having been the little sibling. She was left out and behind because she was the baby and that she would share with their soon to be new addition to the family. Sofia and Callie could bond over being the big sister and they’d bond over the secret life of second-born-child syndrome. Just the thought of their new baby made Arizona’s face break out into a huge grin. She did that a lot lately and Karev gave her a hard time for it. He said she was getting soft. No, that wasn’t true. Sofia had made her soft already, Arizona was just glowing like any mother-to-be. She glowed anytime she caught sight of her wife. She glowed when she saw her daughter. Arizona Robbins glowed. She went from awesome surgeon to awesome mom without ever looking back.
****
“We need to move,” Arizona declared, as if the thought had just occurred to her.
“What?” Callie looked up from the open femur fracture on the operating table.
“We need to move. We’re going to have another baby soon. Where are we supposed to put another kid? I know he’ll share our room for a while, but the apartment’s too small for all four of us to live there. So we need to move.” Arizona said all this while still focusing on operation. Callie, on the other hand, had stopped entirely to stare at her wife.
“And you thought that now was the best time to bring this up?”
“We’ve been so busy lately that we haven’t had much time to talk. Now’s as good a time as any.”
Callie stopped staring and resumed operating. “Okay. So do you have a plan in mind for how to go about this?”
“I may have looked at a few house listings.”
“May have, huh? Did you find anything that you like?”
“Maybe. And maybe, we might have an appointment with a realtor on our next joint day off. Don’t worry. I haven’t made any major decisions. I told the realtor only what you and I already discussed wanting. We can fill in the blanks when we meet him.”
“Okay. I love you, but can we finish operating now? We can resume this talk after we’re done here.”
****
All day long, Callie kept catching Arizona looking at her. She knew why, but that didn’t console her at all. As Arizona watched her from across the floor, Callie dropped her hand protectively onto the gentle swell of her stomach. She was 23 weeks and 5 days pregnant today, the day Sofia had been born. Arizona had had a nightmare the previous night, one of her worst. They were both a little on edge. Arizona hadn’t let Callie go anywhere by car for the last week. She tried to be subtle about it, offering to do grocery runs herself along with any other necessary errands. Callie let her, because she knew her wife did it out of love and concern. She just hoped that once this day was over, Arizona would start to relax. Driving was unavoidable. She'd spent weeks dealing with bouts of anxiety herself, but they couldn't live in a state of panic. It had to stop today because they couldn't survive the next sixteen or so weeks this way. Tomorrow, she would tackle this head on. Tomorrow, they would go for a leisurely drive even if Callie had to hit her wife over the head and fold her unconscious body into the car. But for today, she'd let Arizona be protective and overbearing because today it was her turn to be a little crazy.
****
“Strawberries!” Callie sat up with a start, staring down at her still sleeping wife. She gave Arizona a sharp nudge to her side. “Arizona, wake up!”
Arizona sat up far too quickly then leaned back as the dizziness overwhelmed her. “Calliope, what?” she snapped, sounding harsher than she had intended.
Callie ignored her wife’s tone and simply nudged her again. “I need strawberries.”
“Are you kidding me? We have five different kinds of fruit in this place and you need the ONE FRUIT we don’t have? Can’t it wait until morning? Don’t you have tomorrow off?” Arizona started to burrow herself back under the warm covers until she was rudely interrupted by a small poke to her side.
“I need strawberries. Now. Please.”
“Can’t you go get them yourself? You can drive.” Once Arizona had gotten over the week 23 driving anxiety, things had more or less gone back to normal for them.
In response, Callie grabbed Arizona’s hand and placed it low on her belly. It was a surefire way these days to get Arizona to do anything Callie wanted.
“Mean!” was the muffled response from the face now buried in the pillow.
“Strawberries,” Callie said simply to reply. With a loud groan, Arizona lifted herself off the bed and drunk-stumbled over to her dresser to pull out some suitable clothing for a trip to the store. She dressed in silence, then leaned in to kiss her already drowsy again wife before she picked up her keys and left.
When Arizona got back, she scrambled in the fridge to find some whipped cream to go with the strawberries before taking the whole treat back into the bedroom.
She blinked slowly a few times to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. Their sheets were mostly thrown off the bed, which sat mockingly empty. “Callie?” She went back out to the living room to see if Callie had gotten restless in the big bed and moved to the couch. It, too, was empty.
Callie wasn’t on-call, so Arizona knew she wasn’t in the hospital. In a moment of panic, she slammed the whipped cream and strawberries on the counter and bolted into Sofia’s room. She found her beloved baby still sleeping soundly in her big girl bed. She ran back into the living room, more panicked than ever. Callie would NEVER leave Sofia alone if she had to leave. She was just beginning to contemplate calling the police when Callie appeared at the door, strawberries in hand, happily munching away.
“Callie!? Where the hell were you? I was worried sick. Where did you go?”
Callie at least had the brains to look sheepish. “After you left, I was just lying there, craving strawberries, and then I remembered that Mark had some in his fridge. So, uh, I went to get his. I’m sorry.”
“Callie, you scared me to death,” she scolded, carefully keeping her voice both stern and quiet, mindful of the sleeping toddler not so far away.
“I’m sorry. I just really needed some strawberries. I was right across the hall. I came right back.”
“It’s fine. Let’s just go back to bed and tomorrow we can talk about how you took 10 years off my life in one evening.”
****
Callie growled in frustration as she tried to button her pants. There was no way she’d outgrown yet another pair of pants. She began jumping with as much effort as she could muster, desperately trying to force her way into the pants that had fit her just a week ago.
That was how Arizona found her when she wandered back into the bedroom to see what was keeping her wife. She giggled as her wife bounced around the room, trying and failing to fit the pants around her protruding belly. Callie continued to bounce until she overcorrected and she tumbled onto the floor.
Arizona immediately jumped to action. “Callie! Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“Yeah, baby’s fine. Aside from my bruised pride, I’m okay, too.” Callie hung her head as Arizona assessed her body for injuries. “Why don’t any of my clothes fit anymore? I just bought those pants. They can’t already be too small.”
“You’re pregnant, Callie. You’re growing our baby, emphasis on the growing. We knew you’d grow out of these pants. That’s why we have the bigger pants.” She lifted herself off the floor and went to grab a pair of pants the next size up from their closet.
“I feel fat.”
“You’re not fat. You are pregnant and you are beautiful.” Arizona helped Callie strip off the too-small jeans. Callie went to pick up the larger pair to slip them on, but Arizona stopped her and kissed her as she grabbed the pants herself and pulled them slowly up Callie’s legs, kissing the inside of her knees and then her thighs as she went. “You are beautiful,” Arizona repeated as she pulled Callie’s jeans over her hips and fastened the button.
****
It had been a long day for Callie and her little bundle of joy was not being very joyous at the moment. Halfway through surgery, he decided to let his presence be known in the most obnoxious way possible and he hadn’t quit since.
“Ugh.” Callie cringed as a little, itty, bitty, baby foot came into contact with what she assumed was her liver for the umpteenth time that day.
“Mommy okay?” Sofia looked worried.
“Mommy’s … ow! Stop it this instance, little one, or I’m going to eat something spicy.” Callie looked up at the horrified look on her daughter’s face. “Mommy’s fine, Sofia.”
“Ow!” Callie rubbed her stomach as the kicking continued.
Sofia watched as her mommy continued to cringe. Getting up, she slowly made her way over to where Callie was sitting and before her mommy knew what was going on, the three-year-old’s not so gentle hand came into contact with her stomach. “Bad baby. Don’t hurt Mommy. Time out!”
Arizona walked in at the exact moment her daughter swatted her wife. Trying hard not to laugh at the scene or the shocked expression her wife was sporting, Arizona walked over to her daughter, grabbing her by the arm and leading her to the couch.
“Sofia Robbin, we do not hit in this house. Hitting is bad and you know better.” While it was the cutest thing ever seeing her daughter defend her wife, it had to be nipped in the bud before it became a future issue.
“Baby hurt Mommy!” Sofia’s eyes filled with tears.
“Sofia, the baby is just moving and Mommy’s okay. Right, Mommy?”
Callie nodded, her eyes still wide in shock that their normally docile daughter just hit her. Hit them. It was more a surprise than painful, but she was still shocked.
“Ow.” She gritted her teeth, trying not to make a big deal about their child tap dancing on her internal organs. Apparently this was too upsetting to Sofia.
“Bad baby!” Sofia yelled.
“Sofia!”
“I didn’t hit.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, Sofia. You need to go apologize to Mommy and the baby and we’re going to go have our own time out because hitting is bad. We don’t hit in this house and you know better.” Arizona hated being the bad guy.
Slowly making her way over to where Callie was seated, she looked at her shoes and whispered, “Sorry, Mommy.”
“It’s okay, just don’t do it again.”
“And …” Arizona stood waiting.
Leaning in she rubbed at Callie’s round belly. Whispering in a three-year-old stage whisper, “Hitting is bad, baby. Time out, too.”
“Sofia!”
“I sorry.” She continued to hang her head in shame, which was probably for the better since both mothers were trying very hard not to laugh at her antics.
It was cute. Bad. Inappropriate. But cute.
As the two walked toward Sofia’s bedroom, Callie let out another groan. “If you don’t settle down, Mommy’s going to eat spicy food and then nobody’ll be happy!”
“Calliope, what did I just say about two wrongs don’t make a right?” Arizona turned toward her wife, scolding her.
“I sorry.” Callie mimicked her daughter, hanging her head in shame causing Arizona to bust out a laugh at the pair of them.
****
She knew her wife wasn’t asleep by the lack of labored breathing. Since she wasn’t asleep or anywhere near tired, Arizona decided to take advantage of a baby-free night with her wife. Trailing her fingers up and over Callie’s blanket covered legs, Arizona leaned over her wife’s body and nipped lightly at her exposed earlobe.
“Not tonight.” Callie tensed under her wife’s touch before rolling out of reach.
“You said that last night.” Arizona was flabbergasted that for what felt like the millionth time her advances were being rejected by her wife.
“Can’t we just get some sleep before this baby decides to tap dance on my bladder and wake me up at the butt crack of dawn?”
“Callie,” Arizona sighed. “Please? I miss you.” She scooted closer to her wife’s stiff body again. Her fingers traced lightly through the blankets, this time across Callie’s chest.
“God, no, Arizona. Just, just don’t touch me.”
At first, anger filled the blonde as her wife threw her arm aside and sat up, grabbing for her pillows to leave the room. This wasn’t happening again. She did everything she could to cater to her wife’s mood swings and the hormones pregnancy brought, but Callie acted like she had the plague every time she went to touch her wife. It wasn’t until Callie was halfway to the door that it clicked for her. Memories of Sofia’s pregnancy hit her like a truck and she was flooded with guilt.
“Callie, come back here.” When Callie didn’t slow down, Arizona jumped up, racing to grab her wife before Callie could open the door. “Hey.” Arizona turned Callie toward her and forced her to make eye contact. “You are the sexiest, most heavenly, sensational, alluring, beautiful woman I have ever known.” She slid her hands slowly down Callie’s sides. “All I ever want to do is worship you, show you how much I love you. And being pregnant? Yeah, that just makes you sexier. Every time I catch sight of you getting out of the shower or changing your clothes, I’m in awe of just how beautiful you are and that you’re mine. Please, just let me show you how much I love you. It doesn’t have to be tonight. We can just sleep tonight if that’s what you really want, but don’t pull away because you don’t think you’re beautiful, because I think you’re breathtaking. I promise.” With that, Arizona leaned in for a kiss. When Callie responded in kind, Arizona felt confident enough to make another move to take things further. This time, Callie reciprocated instead of pulling back and soon they were tumbling (much less gracefully for Callie) back into their bed in a heated embrace.
****
It took three tries and a helping hand from Arizona to get Callie off the bed, as it did almost every day at this point. She was 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant today and showing no signs of pending delivery. She had gone on maternity leave weeks before, unable to handle the long shifts with the added weight of her second child. She loved her temporary role as stay at home wife and mom which was fortunate as this baby didn’t seem in any kind of rush to meet them. Not that Callie was complaining. She’d deal with the soreness and back pain and discomfort for as long it took. She wasn’t going to let anyone convince her to let medicine intervene. Not that they hadn’t tried. Their OB had tried. Arizona had tried. Bailey even took a shot at it. But Callie had stood firm. This baby was not coming out until she (or he, as they’d decided once again not to know the sex) was good and ready. She’d already had a baby come early and it was not an experience she ever wanted to repeat. So they were going to wait.
Arizona was going to have to put up with her own issues because as long as Callie was carrying this baby, she got the final say. She got it, she really did. She understood her wife’s worries over statistics and facts surrounding pregnancy, labor, and delivery, but those meant nothing to a mother who knew her baby just wasn’t ready to come yet. Soon, but not yet.
****
“Dr. Robbins, you’re being paged,” Arizona’s scrub nurse, Deb, informed her.
“Crap. I just opened. Can you check it?” Since one week before the due date, Arizona had been doing only short, routine procedures so that she could be available when Callie went into labor. She had delayed going on full maternity leave, wanting to be able to take as much time after the baby even if that meant less time off before the baby was born. It ended up being a wise choice as this baby, already as stubborn as both moms, was still hanging on at 41 weeks, 2 days.
“It’s your wife. She’s here. It’s baby time!” By this point, Arizona’s whole staff was well-versed on the procedures for baby time. While she took a moment to pause and think about how she was finally going to meet her second child soon, the surgical team around her was already moving. Her fellow stepped in to take over operating and she rushed to scrub out.
In the scrub room, she took a quiet moment to contemplate exactly what was happening. They were having a baby. They’d missed out on this part before. Sofia’s birth had been rushed and terrifying and everything a birth never should be. Sofia was so sick for so long. This baby was healthy, strong, big. After taking a few more moments to collect herself and finish scrubbing out, she raced out the door to her wife’s side.
****
Callie squeezed Arizona’s hand as hard as she could as she pushed. She was exhausted. She felt like she had been pushing for days. Finally, the pressure between her legs disappeared as her second child came into the world. She leaned her head toward her wife as Arizona came up to whisper about how proud she was. After a quick kiss on the forehead, Arizona went back to see their newest addition. She took a quick look before cutting the cord and cradling her newborn.
“It’s a girl!” Arizona announced happily as she gazed in wonder at the newborn in her arms. “We have another girl.” She quickly looked over her wailing newborn, committing every second of this to memory. At an impatient motion from Callie, she carefully placed the newborn on Callie’s gowned chest.
Callie cried as she looked at her daughter. “Hi, baby. Oh, Arizona. She’s so perfect.” She looked back up at her wife, whose eyes were also full of tears. “Come here. Come look at our daughter.”
Arizona leaned down to press her head to Callie’s, giving her a good angle to see the baby’s face. She was wailing, unhappy at being disturbed from her happy former home.
“Thank you,” Arizona whispered. “Thank you for her and for Sofia. You’re so amazing.”
“We’re amazing.”
**********
Leah Marie Torres
Daughter of Proud Mothers Arizona Robbins and Calliope Torres
13 November 2014
3:13 PM
7 lbs., 5 oz.
19.5 inches long