Fanfic: As Time Goes By (14/?)

[majincammy]

Title: As Time Goes By 14
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Callie’s promotion brings a man from Arizona’s past back into her life. This is my first venture into an AU fiction. There are small things that do come from the show, but nothing is spoilery.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I do not intend to profit in any way, shape or form by posting this story. It's for fun, nothing more, and nothing less. Please don't sue me.

A/N 1: It’s taken a while for me to finally get this written. I had a bad case of writer’s block, but with help from Drea and JJ, we bashed it. JJ and I managed to write over 12,000 words, so we split it into three and a half chapters, so I’ll post one today and then chapter 15 tomorrow, as a treat since it took us so long to get these up. :D

A/N 2: There is drama in the next chapter. No, seriously, there is major drama. I just want you all to be prepared for it. :p

One year and six months later (September)

“Mommy! I can be a lion tamer and Bunny, Ducky and MooMoo can be my lions!” Sofia giggled when she heard the triplets clap and an enthusiastic ‘yay!’ came out of Sienna’s mouth.

“I canna woar, Mommy!” Skye giggled and waited to make eye contact with Arizona in the rearview mirror before lifting her hands in front of her and letting loose with a huge “Wooooar!”

Arizona shook her head and looked back to see the light had changed from red to green. “That’s a good idea, Sofia-bear, but I don’t think your Mama would go for it.”

“Mama is so particular about our costumes.” Spencer sighed and leaned his head against his car seat. Arizona was still shocked at how smart their little boy was. He spoke so clearly and used words the girls weren’t so sure about yet. “I mean, last year she dressed us up as babies.” He rolled his little baby blue eyes and Arizona couldn’t keep the smile off her face when she remembered how all their friends groaned at Callie’s ‘clever’ costumes for the one year olds.

“But you three were the cutest babies in the whole world. And Sofia was a totally awesome Supergirl.” Arizona responded, glancing in the review mirror for a quick moment, but ensuring her attention remained mainly on the road.

“You’re a little biased, Mother.” Spencer replied.

“Hey, don’t call me that.” Arizona said in mock offense.

All of the girls giggled and then all four looked at each other for a moment, then said at the same time, “Yes, Mother,” and then they all broke into happy giggles again.

Arizona rolled her eyes at her children’s’ antics. You wouldn’t tell by the scene in the tank at the moment, but Arizona was a little nervous. Today was the first day of kindergarten for Sofia. When she spoke to Nix about her worries a few days ago, he said it was also the start for Emily and it turns out they were enrolled at the same school. They decided to car pool the kids to school, and then she and Nix would head to the hospital and drop the triplets off at daycare, since Alice was visiting her parents this week.

“I’m serious. You guys don’t call your Mama that.” Arizona said with a straight face as she pulled into Nix’s driveway and honked the horn once.

“That’s cawse she’s just Mama.” Skye said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Just Mama?” Arizona asked with a small laugh. “Don’t ever say that to her, okay?”

“Mama would just stare at us if we ever did that with her. You at least pretend to find offense in it,” Spencer laughed and shrugged slightly, “…though confusing Mama is often the highlight of my day.” He grinned while looking at Skye and Sienna and both of them laughed heartily.

“Oh no. Don’t you give them anymore ideas, MooMoo. Remember what happened last time, when you convinced Skye and Sienna to pretend they were each other and they kept correcting your Mama when she called them by name and at the end of the week she was so confused she didn’t know which one was really which?” Arizona’s gaze landed right into Spencer’s eyes and she could see the mischief behind his smile and the twinkle in his eye as he remembered how much fun that was, but the smile went away when he remembered his Mama crying while his Mommy held her when they finally told the truth.

He licked his lips and tilted his head slightly while keeping his gaze on Arizona. “How about you stop insisting on calling me MooMoo and I’ll stop convincing my sisters to be my own personal comedians at my parents expense?”

Arizona rolled her eyes at having to compromise with one of her her two year olds. “How about you start acting like a two year old?” She glanced in the rearview mirror at him and he just smiled at her and she shook her head before saying, “Fine, deal.”

“Can we still call you, MooMoo, MooMoo?” Sofia asked with a pout.

Spencer winked at her before replying, “You just did.” All of the girls giggled and Sofia clapped once.

A few moments later the side doors to the tank open and Nix smiles at everyone. “Good morning!” He greeted them happily. All four kids said hi and then started talking to Emily immediately. Nix set her up in the car seat that Arizona left in the tank for her and then he jumped into the passenger seat and threw his seatbelt on. Arizona headed out of the driveway and on toward the private school where the girls were enrolled, the Villa Academy. Arizona was proud that she finally talked Callie into the school, since it is one of the first green schools in their state and it’s one of the best private schools in the country. Arizona explained to Callie that although public school would be fine, a private school will afford many advantages. Smaller class sizes which would mean more attention per child and an educational program more catered to how the child learns and also better extracurricular activities, since they’re paying tuition along with the other parents, which means more money to go into their children’s interests. The school is highly competitive and expensive and she explained to Callie that they should give as many advantages to their children as they possibly can. Callie agreed and they settled on the Villa Academy.

“Well, it looks like Emily and Sofia are ready for this, are you?” Nix said with a grin. “I’m really not sure I am.”

Arizona glanced at the two girls chatting happily with each other in the back and then faced forward. “No, I don’t think I am, but Callie was a mess this morning and purposely went into work early this morning so she wouldn’t have to drop her off. I have to be the one to suffer the teary eyed look from my mini-Calliope as she wonders where I’m going, despite the fact we’ve already had the conversation about school and what it entails and that she’s going to meet so many new people and we already brought her in and introduced her to the teacher so she wouldn’t be scared and she said she understood, but you just never know until you’re there and you’re doing it.” Arizona sighed as she rambled on about her insecurities regarding this morning.

“So no, I get to do that and she gets to be the fun one that picks her up and listens to her go on and on about her day and all the new things she’s going to see and be a part of while I’m in surgery for another two hours . So Callie looks like the hero while I’m the one Sofia is going to remember abandoning her at the front of the school for the rest of her life!”

Nix was staring wide-eyed at Arizona even after the rant finally ended. Arizona was still watching the road, but after not hearing anything for several minutes other than idle chatter among the children, she finally chanced a quick glance at Nix. He was staring at her with an unreadable look. She turned back to the road. “What?”

“I’m sorry I asked…” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I was feeling much better about this five minutes ago, but you totally just burst my bubble and now I think I’m going to be the worst parent ever after dropping them off.”

Arizona laughed and felt her stress lift off her shoulders. “Thank you, Nix. I had been holding that in for a while and I didn’t want to unleash it on Callie, because she’s still acting kind of weird.”

Nix pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and scrunched his face. “Still?”

“Yeah, remember?” Nix nodded, but Arizona just continued talking anyway, “Ever since Sofia’s birthday she has had something on her mind, but she hasn’t come out and asked me about it.” Arizona sighed softly. “I wish she would though, because she’s confusing the hell out of me. Last week, I was cleaning the living room while she was sitting on the couch watching a rerun of Friends. And she starts clapping and singing along with the music and then goes into this long tirade about how much she once had a crush on Monica and how I’m kind of like a blonde version of Monica from the show because of how spotless I keep the house.”

Arizona rubs her forehead for a couple of seconds before continuing, “But it doesn’t end there, she starts going on that she always liked Monica as a name and that we should’ve named Sienna Monica, because she’s a clean freak like me and always puts things away when she’s done with it, because Sienna just insists on doing everything the way I do. And then Callie asks me if I know anyone named Monica, because she only knows that name from the show and she laughs and says,” Arizona mocks Callie’s tone and posture, “…‘seriously, you’re the blonde Monica’. It was just weird. And then she gets up to leave the room and sings, ‘I’ll be there for you’ to me and I’m just left standing there as she walks into the bedroom.”

“Oh! And last week, she’s talking about college life again and how her sister was part of a sorority and she used to sneak into the parties and was just a bad girl and she starts asking me about what I did in college and when I tell her about John Hopkins and all the parties I went too during my residency, she just pouts and acts like she’s not interested! It’s infuriating, really.” Arizona puffed her cheeks out and released a long breath.

Nix was frozen and said nothing. He just didn’t know what to say and he really didn’t want Arizona to know he spilled the beans about the Monica in her past and it really seemed like Arizona completely forgot about it or is really doing her best to not let on that she knows about anything. They continued in silence to the school to drop the girls off, which turned into a tearful affair when Skye and Sienna demanded to go with Sofia and Emily and when Arizona finally managed to calm everyone down, they just pouted for the entire ride to the hospital and said nothing when they were dropped off at the daycare in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Callie was in her officer staring at her computer screen with an amused grin. Mark had wandered to the door and watched her for a few minutes. She would laugh and shake her head and then scroll a bit and laugh again. He finally knocked on the door and laughed when he watched Callie jump and then freak out to minimize whatever window she was looking at.

“Holy shit, Mark, I thought you were Arizona.” She released a breath of relief and pulled up the page she was looking out and pouted slightly.

“Why the long face? You were looking quite amused a few minutes ago.”

“I married freaking Mother Teresa.” She sighed again and Mark raised a brow.

“Well, Robbins is awfully nice. What are you looking at?”

“I googled Arizona, because I was curious about something Nix told me, which I can’t tell you about, but that’s beside the point.”

Mark gave Callie a blank stare.

She rolled her eyes, “I googled Arizona and you wouldn’t believe what comes up. There are at least a dozen articles on her clinic in Malawi and the work she’s been doing in conjunction with Dr. Phillips, who is actually running the clinic in Africa. Then, she has a few articles about her type one diabetes research and the amazing work she’s been doing to stop juvenile diabetes when she was in med school. She had to put it on hold for a while, but she’s been talking about starting it back up again. And then there are literally hundreds of posts from previous patients of hers and parents of patients telling about the amazing work she does. I mean, some of them are from parents of kids that didn’t survive, but they were so touched by how hard she fought and how she helped them that they wrote all over their facebook page about it. She’s really amazing.”

“Is that why you were looking so amused earlier?” Mark said with a chuckle as he sat down in the chair in front of Callie’s desk.

“Well, yeah, it was kinda nice to read about how amazing my wife is. So it made me curious and I googled myself.” She sighed deeply and the pout returned to her lips, “There are four articles about my cartilage research.”

Mark did his best to hold back a chuckle. “Well, once you get some more funding and awesome things start happening, then all of that will change. That cartilage is going to change the face of orthopedics.” Mark nodded with his words.

“Oh man, Mark, my wife’s words coming from your mouth is scary.”

Mark had the decency to blush. “How did you know that I heard that from her?”

“First of all, you don’t say awesome and secondly, every time I pout about my lack of funding, that’s what she says to me.” Callie laughs and shakes her head slightly.

“Hey, look me up and tell me what comes up?”

“Do you really want me too, Mark?”

“Hell yeah. I bet there are all kinds of great stuff on the net about me.”

Callie scoffed and pulled up google, typed Mark’s name in and turned her monitor toward him.

“What the hell is this?!” Mark clicked the only link that came up: markthemanwhore.com. “Oh my god, I think I’ve slept with a lot of these-- Oh my god, Lexie and Teddy…? CALLIE!?” He turned and looked at her.

Callie shrugged slightly, “It was a long time ago. Honestly, I didn’t know the site was still around, especially after you and Lexie finally got married. We used it to let off steam and make fun of you.”

“Oh my god, some of these posts are recent and I haven’t slept with anyone but Lexie in years!”

“Well, those are probably just the jealous ones, I’m sure. I, however, gladly went lesbian and you helped me come to that decision, you know.”

“Oh, great, I turned you gay. Exactly what my fragile ego needed to know.”

“Well, it’s true. And it’s so, so good.” Callie’s eyes glazed over for a moment as she thought about Arizona and a small sexy grin crossed her lips.

“She really does it for you, huh, Torres?”

“Oh man, Mark, does she ever. And really, once you go Robbins, you can never go back.” She shrugged again and laughed when Mark’s face looked as wounded as his pride, but it only lasted for a moment before his face took on a lecherous grin.

“No, Mark, don’t even think about it. It’s gross when you do.”

Mark pouted and spun around to leave the room. “I should tell Robbins what you’re doing, especially after you hurt me so deeply.”

“Mark, you do it and Lexie will end up killing me after I cut your favorite appendage off.” She narrowed her eyes at him as her held his hands up and laughed.

“Don’t worry; your secret is safe with me.” He laughed as he spun around and left her office. Callie closed her web browser and leaned back in her seat with a sigh. Arizona wasn’t taking her hints and Callie was too scared and nervous to actually ask, especially after how much time she let go by. She didn’t want to get Nix in trouble with Arizona either. She felt stuck and saddened that Arizona was hiding something from her, whether intentionally or not.

Three hours later Arizona was paged to the ER. There was an accident involving a school bus and most of the kids were perfectly fine, but one boy valiantly attempted to protect his girlfriend. He succeeded, but ended up being flown through a window and landing on his back, which was definitely broken. Seventeen years old, an All-American high school football athlete who had a full scholarship set for Stanford. Arizona was reviewing the charts and assessing the damages to his spine with Derek and Nix and the only thought that went through her mind was that she hoped the boy would be able to walk, let alone ever play football again.

Arizona sighed deeply while glancing up at the other doctors in the room with her. “I knew today was really going to suck when the twins cried when I dropped off Sofia. And then Spencer gave me that look, like he understood everything that was going on, but elected to say nothing so he wouldn’t make me feel less parent-y.” She said the last word with an expressive sigh before turning to Derek. “I’m sorry, back to business… what do you think Derek? Is there anything we can do to help him?” Arizona sighed again and ran her fingers through her hair while she turned back to look at the x-rays which were hanging on the lightbox in the exam room. Unfortunately, things were not looking good because the boy’s spine was so heavily damaged.

“He’s got extreme nerve damage in his lower back and several broken vertebrae,” Derek looked critical and concerned as he pointed out the damage on the x-ray which was hanging in front of them. “The most damage seems to be around the nerves that control his leg muscles and they are so close to being completely severed, I just think doing the surgery is way too much of a risk at this time. If something were to go wrong during surgery, it could actually cause a lot more harm than good.” Arizona pulled her bottom lip between her teeth while listening to Derek, and then she glanced over at Nix who nodded in agreement with Derek’s assessment.

“And now I have to tell this brave kid that saving his girlfriend’s life is going to cause him to spend the rest of his in a wheelchair.” Arizona felt like crying, but she wasn’t about to show it in front of her colleagues. It was a horrible situation to be faced with, for anyone at any age, but especially for a 17 year old. In talking with several of the survivors of the crash who knew the boy, Arizona learned his future rested on his legs. It was a future where he would play college football and possibly go into the National Football League at the end of his college career. He was extremely talented and scouts had fought over him this last year, but the information she was about to share with him would not only change what his future consisted of completely, but it was likely going to devastate him as well as his family.

A beep rang out in the room and they all looked at their beepers, Derek quickly glanced up to Arizona, “I’m sorry, Dr. Robbins, but I have to go now and help Dr. Bailey with another consult. I’m sure you and Dr. Taylor can handle talking to the Sanders kid?” Arizona nodded and gave Dr. Shepherd a weak smile before he left the room.

“Would you like for me to come with you to talk to them?” Arizona turned to look at her friend and then shook her head no, signaling it wouldn’t be necessary. Nix grabbed her hand and squeezed it and she gave a sharp laugh and slapped his shoulder.

“It’s ok, Dr. Taylor, you’ve got surgery in ten minutes and you don’t need me making you late.”

“Arizona, I know the coincidence of his name must be making you freak out a bit. Are you sure you want to do this alone?” Arizona nodded shortly and shot Nix a look; a sharp look to let him know the discussion on whether or not the patients name was freaking her out was not up for discussion. Ever. But the fact of the matter was they were both well aware of the bizarre coincidence. Nix pulled her into a very quick hug and then looked her in the eye for a good minute before turning and leaving her by herself.

Arizona stood in the room staring at Robbie Sanders x-rays for what felt like hours. She really hated the fact that she was about to go in to this boys room and rip his life apart. It made her think about her girls and her baby boy; the four tiny humans that she loved the most in the world. She could only imagine how this boy’s parents were going to feel when they heard the news, because she knew how she’d feel if it was happening to one of her own. She never once regretted changing her mind about children with Callie, but moments like this made her question why she chose this profession.

Arizona left the exam room and headed down to the patients room. She walked slowly, postponing her arrival and then stopped just short of the door before she took a deep breath and walked in. She was greeted by the sight of a very scared looking woman who was sitting and holding the hand of her frightened son. The boy looked drugged and half asleep, but he was clinging to the woman, which Arizona can only assume is his mother. She stood quickly when she saw Arizona walk into the room.

“Hello Mrs. Sanders, I’m Dr. Robbins.” Arizona shook the older woman’s hand.

Mrs. Sanders was trembling and had tears in her eyes as she glanced over Arizona and then looked to her son. Suddenly, the trembling stopped and she gave Arizona a stern look before she finally spoke. “Oh please, call me Paula. Look, I’ve been in here for over an hour and you are the first doctor to come in here and even talk to us about what’s going on with my son. We’ve been sitting here, scared and worried. He says he can’t feel his legs and he’s in so much pain, I can see it in his eyes even with all of the medication you have him on.”

“…what about Tracy?” The pained voice came from the boy lying in the bed. He was trying to get Arizona’s attention, but he yelped in pain when he tried to move, so he just sat there and spoke in a strained voice. “Tracy Williams… she’s my girlfriend, is she ok? Please, tell me she’s alright…”

Arizona lifted her hand toward Robbie and motioned for him to stay still. “I spoke with several of your friends earlier, when we were still assessing your injuries and having tests run and I learned you saved her life. You should be so proud of yourself, but it did come at a price.” She motioned for Paula Sanders to sit down next to her son and she did so while sobbing silently. She took Robbie’s hand into hers and they both looked up to Arizona.

“The reason you hadn’t seen myself or the other doctors involved yet, was simply because we were concerned with Robbie’s injuries and we wanted to have all the information to give to you, so that we could answer all your questions and give you the correct information, especially with such serious injuries.” She glanced to Paula and then to Robbie only to see both were staring at her intently. “There is no easy way to say this, but the injuries to your spine are permanent. Unfortunately, surgery could cause even more damage and we don’t want to risk Robbie losing any further range of motion. We assessed every possible scenario and there is just nothing that we can do surgically to fix these damages.”

Paula cried out loud and shook her head. “My poor baby boy…”

Robbie just stared ahead as he accepted the information. He licked his lips and then gave a small smile to Arizona, “But Tracy, she’s okay?”

Arizona nodded and tilted her head slightly, “She had a few cuts and a bruise, but she was relatively unharmed and so grateful that you helped her. She and a few others are outside waiting to see you, but we needed to finish assessing your injuries and speak to you first.”

He nodded and then patted his mom’s hand. “It’ll be alright, Mom. I’m alive. Tracy is well. It’ll be alright.” She smiled at him and caressed his cheek with her hand. She nodded once and then sniffled again.

Arizona was impressed with the boy and she nodded at him. “Dr. Shepherd and I are going to resubmit all of these tests in two days and reassess at that time whether or not surgery will become an option. Is Mr. Sanders on his way?”

Paula’s face went flat and she lost all of her color. Robbie looked at his mother and patted her hand again which broke her from the spell and she looked to Arizona and nodded. “I called him. He was out of town and very upset that he was forced to leave his conference three days early, but he should be here in a few hours.” She spoke in a monotone voice and turned away from Arizona’s gaze.

“Alright, well, that is good because he’ll want to be here after we do the next set of tests. Well, I’m going to invite your friends to see you, they’re very concerned for you. The nurses can reach me at any time, so don’t hesitate to have them contact me for anything, okay?” She nodded to them and they nodded back.

Paula got up and gave Arizona a hug. “Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.”

Arizona nodded and smiled, then headed out to let the nurse on the case know that Robbie’s friends could see him, but for no more than a half hour. She also let them know to call her should she be needed. She then pouted and headed to the nearest on-call room so that she could finally sit down and have a much needed cry.

Callie walked into the hospital cafeteria with a big smile on her face. She had just finished a surgery where she had definitely lived up to her rock star reputation and now she was about to embark on one of her favourite activities at Seattle Grace Mercy West; something which had become a rare event lately, lunch with her beautiful wife. Callie looked around the cafeteria for Arizona and spotted her sitting alone in a far corner. She was staring into space and just idly pushing her food around her plate. Callie walked towards her, pulled out a chair and sat down, but Arizona still didn’t even notice she was there.

“Hey, Arizona, are you ok? Helloooooo, paging Dr. Robbins.” Callie waved her hand in front of her wife’s face causing Arizona to blink and give a small shake of her head, snapping herself out of her thoughts.

“Oh, hey, Calliope!” Arizona took a moment to stare at her wife and then blushed a bit when she realized she had no idea how long Callie had been there. “I’m sorry; I was off in a whole world of my own.” Arizona gave her a small smile and pressed a quick peck to her lips.

“I could see that.” Callie chuckled at Arizona’s understatement of her mood and decided to press forward to see if Arizona would share what was going on in her head. “Is everything ok? You’ve hardly touched your food and I know you totally love the pasta salad here.” Callie stroked her hand up and down her wife’s back with a look of concern etched on her face. Arizona sighed deeply and shook her before stabbing at the food on her plate.

“Today has been such an awful, awful day, Callie. First, I had to basically throw Sofia through the door at school because she refused to let go of my leg and Skye and Sienna were demanding to go in there with her and everyone was crying and just generally miserable.” Callie nodded her head and picked up Arizona’s free hand so that she could lace their fingers together. She had guessed that taking their eldest child to school was not going to be an easy affair, considering how close the four children were. That was part of the reason she scheduled such an early surgery, only she wouldn’t admit that to Arizona. She fibbed and claimed she totally forgot about the first day of school and Arizona bought it. She still felt a bit guilty and now even more so.

“And then I finally get to work and I’m thrown head first into a huge trauma involving several children and all of a sudden I have to tell a seventeen year old, who was a possible future NFL legend from the sound of things, that he is now going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.” Arizona put down her fork and ran the fingers of her free hand through her hair, “…all because he decided to be heroic and threw himself on top of his girlfriend to save her. Which he did and that part is wonderful, but honestly, this poor child. The whole time I was looking at all those kids that had gotten hurt, especially the newly paraplegic boy, I just couldn’t stop thinking about their parents and how they were going to react to the news. And then, I start thinking about our kids and how I’d feel if it was one of those parents, stuck in a hospital, watching one of my girls or my little boy in a hospital bed while we’re on the sidelines and can do nothing to help them.“

“Arizona, you kno-“ Callie tried to stop Arizona, because once she got on one of her rants, it was almost impossible to stop her and this looks as though it was just going to be one of those times.

“And I know, really I know, that I shouldn’t keep picturing our babies in the cases I get, but of all the tiny humans, they just remind me of them and then I can’t help it. Before I became a mother, my mind was clear when I was helping the kids. I could just focus on my job and do what was best for the patient, without getting way to emotionally involved, but now, ever since our very own little tiny humans came along, I just can’t help it. Every single case I get, I have to work super hard to distance the patient and my own kids and sometimes it gets really frustrating.”

“I understand that, but…” Arizona was staring at her food and licked her lips slightly as she was preparing for her next onslaught. She just was not grasping the idea that Callie was trying to respond to her and just continued over the top of anything Callie was trying to say.

“And don’t get me wrong, I love our children. You and the kids are my entire world, but I just wish I could switch off the worrying mom part of me while I’m at work so that I can get back to doing everything I can for my patients without thinking about what it would be like if someone was cutting open my child’s stomach, or stitching their face or whatever they would be need to have done. I love being a mom, I really, really do and our children are so super amazing, but at the same time, I love being a surgeon and I feel like sometimes I’m doing both of those jobs halfway instead of both of them all the way.”

“Ari…” Callie was getting frustrated herself now, since Arizona once again would not let her get even one word in.

“And Callie, oh Callie…” Arizona reached over and grabbed Callie’s hand, squeezing it gently once before she continued, “You should have seen how positive this kid was when I told him he’d never walked again. He acted as though all I’d told him was that we were out of chocolate pudding and he’d have to settle for tapioca. To be honest, I was totally in awe of him. He was comforting his mother and saying how happy he was that he saved his girlfriend. It just made me think that I hope our kids are just a bit like that when they get older. You know, that they will have a positive attitude like that, that we are able to teach them that no matter what life may throw at them, they can handle it. And that we’ll always be there for them and that they know that things will always work out in the end. I don’t want our kids to grow up seeing everything as half empty when they should be seeing life as an overflowing abundance of awesome and that they know that there is nothing they can’t do. I don’t think we have to worry about that with Spencer though.”

Callie raised an eyebrow at her wife’s words, since she had no idea where she was going with this.

“Honestly, Calliope, he’s just so smart, like really super scary smart. He’s so smart that he could probably go to college by the time he’s five and be an established surgeon before his thirteenth birthday, our own little Doogie Howser, and that is super scary. I mean, it’s possible that our two year old son is already smarter than we are, isn’t that scary? He’s like super evil genius smart and I’m telling you, Callie, I have seen those types of movies and things never end well for the super villain.” Arizona shook her head slightly as she was imagining the scenario in her head. She shuddered slightly and just rambled on, completely oblivious to the incredibly confused face Callie was sporting. “First, they start off being all nice and helpful and everyone thinks that they’re a good guy and then suddenly BAM,” she smacked her hands together in front of her and Callie jumped in her seat, “…we go down in history as the makers of the evil spawn that tried to destroy mankind with a giant laser beam.” Arizona took some deep breaths while trying to steady her heartbeat. Callie, on the other hand, just sat there and stared at Arizona with a wide-eyed look on her face. It was her turn to be in her own world. “Callie, are you even listening to me?” Arizona asked the question while crossing her arms over her chest, but Callie just sat there opening and closing her mouth trying to come up with the right words to answer that question.

After a good minute, Callie finally found her voice.

“Arizona, I’ve been trying to talk to you for the past ten minutes, but you wouldn’t let me!” Callie grabbed Arizona’s hands and held them close to her. “Ok, first things first, yes, we have a super smart son, but he is not going to become a super evil genius!”

“Prove it!” Arizona challenged, her mind still stuck in the fantasy she just created for herself.

Callie sat and stared at her for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Oh please, you are forgetting I work closely with your childhood best friend on a daily basis, so I know exactly how you used to behave, you know, when you were younger! So really, stop blaming our son for his evil genius potential when he clearly gets it from you.” Arizona looked at Callie with a completely flabbergasted face. Callie would laugh if she wasn’t so concerned with Arizona’s rant.

"And that's all you got out of that entire rant?" Arizona freed her hands from Callie’s before folding her arms with a humph sound and pouting mouth.

“Look, the fact that you can’t distance our children from your patients is not necessarily a bad thing. Think of it this way, when you are with a patient and you think about how you would feel if it was one of our little monsters, in a way that means you’ll do an even better job of caring for them than you may have done before simply because you will want to make sure that you do absolutely everything you can to help them. It means that you won’t give up until you have absolutely no other choice.” Callie reached again for Arizona’s hands and pulled them away from her chest. “You are an amazing mother, Arizona, and that simply makes you an even more amazing doctor. Our daughter’s love you, our son loves you, your patients love you and seriously, everyone in this whole damn hospital loves you.” Arizona smiled at her wife’s words. “And most importantly, I love you.”

Arizona smiled at her wife and whispered softly to her, “Thank you.”

Callie raised Arizona’s hands to her lips and gently kissed them.

“I love you too, Calliope.”

The moment was interrupted by a loud beeping and Arizona groaned loudly. She reluctantly pulled her hand away from Callie’s to look at her pager. Arizona let out a breath she never knew was holding as she read the page. “It’s about Robbie Sanders, the kid I was telling you about. Looks like his father is finally here and I need to go and talk to the whole family. I’ll see you at home later?” Callie nodded as Arizona stood up and then she leaned down slightly to press a kiss to Callie’s cheek before walking away. “Hey, Arizona…” she called after her, which made her wife stop and turn around. “You’re awesome!” Callie winked at and Arizona laughed before her lips broke into a super magic smile. She blew Callie another kiss before turning away and pushing off on her heel and wheeling back down to peds.