Title: Made for You
Author: A. Windsor
Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one semester of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!
Series: Zeq!verse.
Summary: "I crossed all the lines, and I broke all the rules, but baby I broke them all for you." – Brandi Carlile, The Story
Author's Note: The Story has been used in a thousand awesome ways since we found out our wonderful SaRa would be singing it (I mean, killing it!) on the Music Event. But for me, it became a different kind of love song. Beta'd by the wonderful, snarky roughian. Thanks, you weirdy reindeer.
Arizona leans over to whisper something into her EZ's ear, and their baby boy just sparkles at the attention. Callie knows it's silly, but when she's not busy being absolutely blown away by the strength of the connection between the two, she's undeniably, almost inexplicably, jealous of how Zeq lights up around Arizona.
"Okay, little man. I've gotta go to work. Love you. Be good for Mami."
"Bye-bye," Zeq sings, far more interested in the Cheerios on his high chair tray than the momma who's finally stopped blowing raspberries on his cheek.
Arizona moves to kiss Callie next with a warm press of her lips and a hand that rubs idly at her hip.
"I'll be home as close to seven as possible. Try not put him down too early?" she begs, hoping to see the two-year-old before he goes to bed.
"Sure."
"Okay. Have a great day off," Arizona flashes the dimples Callie still dreams about with one more quick peck as she walks out the door.
It feels almost cloyingly domestic, and Callie feels pretty un-badass for adoring it so much.
"Love you," Callie calls, amazed at how those words have become just a part of the routine, even if she still means them one-hundred-and-ten percent.
"Love you, too!" Arizona calls as the door swings shut.
"What's first on the schedule, m'ijo?" Callie asks, leaning in close to the toddler and getting a whiff. "Whoa-boy. Yeah. First up? Diaper change."
After changing Zeq into real clothes and a clean diaper, their morning is full of laundry and cleaning. Zeq pretends to help load the dryer and more or less successfully puts his little dustpan to good use sweeping up Cheerios (under his madre's watchful eye, so he doesn't eat the fruits of his labor). Soon it's naptime for Mami and Zeq.
Sleepy, he snuggles onto the couch, tucked between her and the back, pacifier, blankie, and all-important green Hot Wheels at hand, while she reads from a pile of books.
Once he's snoring, she looks down, hand tracing his tiny spine as she feels the perfection his breath against her skin after it whistles past his binky. He is her little man, the most important person in her life, and the fulfillment of all she ever dreamed of in this world even if she didn't get him in a way she had ever hoped or wished for. But if he'd come to her in any other way, he wouldn't be her Zeq: the light of her world, the apple of his daddy's eye, and his momma's cherished, darling EZ.
While she still stands firmly by her initial decision that both Mark and Arizona are what's best for Ezequiel, she'd spent her entire pregnancy ready to pick up and leave everything if that had been was what was best for the baby.
She'd broken all the rules of conventional parenting to create a life for Zeq; she'd forge any new path necessary to make sure he is happy and healthy and whole.
Because she'd peed on a stick and changed her entire world, and god, for all the hurt, anger, and tears, she would never, ever, ever take it back. Arizona is the love of her life, but Zeq is her soul mate. (She doesn't think it goes both ways: she's pretty sure that EZ's little soul was made especially to fit snugly in with Arizona's.)
And that's okay, because she has a relationship with their boy that no one can ever take away, and she has the remnants of stretch marks and memories of him stretching his tiny little limbs inside her to prove it. At the end of the day, it is her and Ezequiel against the world, and they just graciously allowed Mark and Arizona onto their team, ultimately for the better.
When those eyes look up at her, eyes that reflect her own, cheekbones that mirror her father's, a smile that graces her like a benediction from an angel, she feels like her life has actual purpose in a way that not even breaking and setting bones ever gave her. He is the best bad decision she ever made.
She drifts in and out of sleep for an hour and a half, until those big brown eyes blink open blearily.
"Buen día, m'ijo. Did you sleep okay?"
That precious little face screws up in consternation: like his mami, Zeq wakes up slow and ugly. He rubs at his eyes and yawns, binky falling from his lips. He takes a deep breath to squawk at the sudden ejection, but Callie quickly pops it back into his mouth. He immediately starts sucking earnestly, laying his head back on her breast.
"Oh, I know. Waking up is so very hard," she laughs at him. "Can I tempt you with a snack, mi amor? And then maybe a little trip to the grocery store? Will you be my date?"
Zeq rubs his forehead against her collarbone and lets out a pitiful little groan.
"Mm. Good thing I'm with your momma now; I'm losing my touch with the boys."
She chuckles a little at her own joke.
"'Nack, Mami?" he finally speaks up.
"Yeah, sure," she smiles at him. She smacks one more big kiss on his cheek as she stands with him. He crinkles his little Sloan nose at the gesture, but immediately snuggles into her shoulder.
"Mami."
"Yes, mi amor?"
He doesn't say anything else, like he just really wanted to mumble her name around his pacifier. She smiles and kisses his unruly curls.
"Your son is very beautiful."
"Thank you!" Callie says genuinely, turning to Zeq in the child seat of the grocery cart. "I'm rather fond of him myself."
Zeq gives her a flirtatious little smile through long lashes before returning his attention to his favorite green Hot Wheels, zooming rhythmically between her hands on the cart's handle.
"And he's so well-behaved, too," the seemingly nice woman in the produce aisle commends.
"Oh, thanks. That's his mother's doing."
The stranger's brow knits in confusion.
"His other mother," Callie clarifies.
"Oh!" It's not an unkind exclamation, just a surprised one, but Callie has time for neither, smiling kindly and moving on to the cereal aisle.
"Imagine if we'd told her about Daddy, too!" Callie says playfully. Zeq giggles at the silly face his madre makes at him.
Zeq drops the beloved Hot Wheels in front of the Cheerios and gives a surprised grunt.
"Oh no!" he exclaims in a near-perfect impression of Arizona's inflection when, as often happens, part of EZ's dinner ends up on the ground.
Callie laughs, and EZ Zeq startles at the sound briefly before regaining his bearings and laughing along with her.
"You are such a goof," Callie grins adoringly. "Is Momma your favorite, hmm?"
Zeq reaches towards the ground.
"Car, please, Mami."
"Sure thing, Mr. Torres."
Callie bends to retrieve the car, handing it back and leaning forward to press a kiss to his temple. She feels extra complete when his arms sneak around her neck for a quick squeeze.
"That's okay," she says softly. "Momma's my favorite, too. After you."
As she pulls back to resume shopping, she feels him running the car up and down her forearm, forming the soft buzzing of an engine under his breath.
"Are you driving on me?" she demands playfully.
"Yes'm," he grins.
Her phone buzzes, and Callie pulls it out of her pocket. Zeq reaches for it, because his dad is always brave/stupid enough to let him play with his, but Callie moves it out of his reach.
"Phone, please, Mami," he says, widening his brown eyes for a puppy-dog pout. (Yeah, they should really submit Ezequiel to a nature versus nurture study. How does he pick up every little thing about Arizona?)
"Oh no no," she shakes her head, checking the text message. "No phone."
Are you two having all the fun w/o me?
Yes, but we miss you desperately.
Mean. Miss you too.
Callie grabs the nearby yellow cereal box with her free hand.
"Cheerios!" Zeq identifies, holding out his hands in a gimme gesture.
Giving him a curious glance, Callie gently hands the box over. He grins and hugs the box to him eagerly.
"Addict," she accuses with a little laugh, snapping a quick picture and sending it to Arizona with the message: Is there rehab for Cheerios? Is it better if we get him started early?
They finish the shopping without revealing any more addictions and unload the groceries without incident.
"Zeq-baby."
"Mami," Zeq answers easily, sweetly, looking up from the chaotic fortress of Duplos he's built up around him. The Green Car sits on the coffee table, and Callie makes a mental note to remember that it's there when they freak out about finding it later.
Arizona brought the car home for him a few weeks ago; his overprotective momma finally declared he was old enough for the plastic kind, even if the tiny little wheels made her a little nervous. Zeq isn't one of those kids who puts everything in his mouth, so so far they've been pretty lucky. Now, he won't sleep without the Car clutched in his hand.
"How about some Elmo?"
"Elmo! Yeah!"
Callie laughs and starts up the television, searching on-demand for a Sesame Street she hasn't seen a million times. Zeq's love of television is very young, since he didn't even really know it existed until shortly before his second birthday, but he does just adore Elmo.
She sets him up with an episode. She'd love nothing more than to join him, but she has to put away the dishes, catch up with a few journal articles, and maybe even sort through some of the charts she brought home, so she's letting the TV do a little babysitting for her. She'd feel guiltier about that if it were even possible for her to be more than twenty feet away from him at any given time in their tiny apartment. The feeling of claustrophobia has been growing inside of her (or maybe that's just the growing annoyance with her toes' nearly daily run-ins with one of Zeq's Tonka trucks that keeps magically appearing all over the house) but she's dreading having any sort of "we need to move" conversation with Mark.
After Elmo, they head to the closest park (not Zeq's favorite, but passable for just a half hour or so of outside playtime). The toddler falls and skins his elbow, which the little drama king milks to full potential, hoping to get a trip to see Momma out of it.
Once, Zeq had smacked his head (in retrospect very lightly) while at another park with his mami and daddy, who immediately rushed him to his momma at work to check for any possible brain injury. Now, the slightest injury seems to him like a reason to see Momma in her white coat and Karev with his silly, grumpy face. Not that he doesn't see them enough as it is on most days, with day care in the hospital, but EZ clearly likes the attention of being a patient.
Later, dinner and bath time pass with only the most minimal fuss and one near tantrum. He's showing signs of the oncoming terrible twos, but he isn't quite there, and she wants to hold onto that as long as possible. When he's all clean and changed into his pajamas, eyes drooping as they rock in the rocking chair with yet another pile of books, Callie looks at her watch and realizes Arizona's not going to make it home. She sighs and lets him drift off, tucking him into his little toddler bed, the Holy Trinity of binky, blankie, and Green Car close at hand.
She drops her forehead to his and, heavy sleeper that he is, Zeq does little more than snuffle a little as she breathes in his freshly bathed scent of baby soap, clean diaper, and Zeq that she finds so wonderful.
"I love you, baby. Sleep tight. Sweet dreams."
Arizona rushes in the door at eight-thirty as Callie sits on the red couch, nursing a glass of wine and a trashy novel at the end of her long day of housewife-ing. Her face falls when she notices Callie is alone.
"Try not to look so disappointed, Arizona," Callie teases. "Am I not exciting enough?"
Arizona sighs and rolls her eyes lovingly, dropping her bag on the counter and stripping off her shoes.
"Of course, you're exciting enough," she says, like she sorta means it, falling onto the couch beside her after giving her a quick peck hello. "Is it bad that I was hoping a little bit that he was having a bit of a rough night and was still awake?"
"It's certainly mean to me," Callie laughs, gently as to show that she understands the love behind the sentiment.
"Well, not that. But so he'd still be up after that stupid, stupid surgery."
"Stupid, hmm?"
"I missed bed time! Of course, it's stupid."
Callie shakes her head and sets both wine and book down to demand a more attentive greeting with a beckoning finger. Arizona snuggles up to her side, pressing a few kisses below her ear before resting her head on Callie's shoulder, linking their fingers together.
"How was your day?" Callie asks. "Besides the stupid surgery that went long."
"Fine. You guys? Did you do anything exciting besides discover our son's strong brand identification skills and loyalty?"
Callie recounts all the little moments of their day, things she would've laughed at being called "exciting" not so long ago but that seem to be absolutely riveting to Ezequiel's mothers.
"Oh, I'm so jealous. EZ and I will just have to have even more fun tomorrow while you bring home the bacon," Arizona teases.
Callie doesn't doubt that. Those two have more fun than she would have thought possible for a toddler and an adult to have. But still, she likes to think that Zeq has just a good of a time with his madre, even if it's different.
"You can go give him a kiss. I told him you would; he was asking for you. I know you've been dying to run in there ever since you got home."
"I'm excited to see you, too!" Arizona objects, staying put. "I'll kiss him on the way to bed. I just want to sit with my girlfriend for a bit longer, okay? How's the book?"
"Do you mean that in a 'oh, what are you reading, dear' kinda way? Or in a 'learn anything good' kinda way?"
Arizona laughs, squeezing her hand.
"I sincerely doubt there's anything in that book I want to try, Calliope," she wrinkles her nose in distaste, picking up the book and inspecting the cover.
"Hm. You'd be surprised."
"You can fill me in in a few minutes. But first I just," she yawns, "want to sit. Just a bit longer."
She hands Callie her book and then sits quietly, while Callie reaches her arm around her, enjoying the feeling of her Arizona pressed alongside her, head on her shoulder.
Within minutes, she's snoring.
Callie sighs and reads on for some time, until her own eyes start to droop.
"Arizona, baby," she whispers softly, nudging her gently. "Let's go to bed."
"Yay," Arizona breathes sleepily.
Callie laughs and kisses her temple. "Go kiss Zeq. I'll meet you in bed."
A few more nudges and Arizona is up and at 'em. She shuffles into their son's room while Callie turns out the lights and straightens a few toys, hiding the sneaky Tonka Truck where she's certain it can't attack her. Arizona crawls into bed a few seconds after she does, cuddling back up to her. She's snoring again before her head hits the pillow.
"Goodnight, Arizona. Rest up. Our little terror is all yours tomorrow."
Callie closes her eyes, feeling her love wrapped around her, thinking of the little boy who changed her story so completely for the better.
el fin
