I would have to say that ninety-nine percent of this fic has been stolen from my last visit with my best friend and her daughter. So, you can all thank my little bit for being a fantastic little muse in all her 'nine months old with an attitude the size of Texas' glory. Also, I really love the relationship between Teddy and Arizona and, in my opinion, there needs to be more fic for it. I hope you enjoy this!
Disclaimer: I stake no claim to anything recognizable and I seek to make no profit from any of this.
"You should probably learn to lock this thing," Teddy spoke as she stepped into the Robbins-Torres apartment.
Arizona stood in the middle of the living room, still in her pajamas and hair in complete disarray, bouncing one very sleepy looking Sofia on her hip. The nine month old had one slobbery hand jammed part way in her mouth and the other tangled in a chunk of Arizona's curls that had escaped her messy bun. She sighed. "It's been one of those mornings, Teddy. Calliope must have forgot to lock it behind her and little miss Sofia had a screaming fit when her mami left."
Teddy smiled and crossed the room, holding her hands out for the little girl. "Are we having a rough morning, baby girl?" She stroked a finger over the baby chubby thigh and pressed a kiss to the plump cheek, pausing to inhale the distinct baby smell. "Are you giving your mama all kinds of hell?"
"Say 'yep, I'm training for my teenage years'." Arizona chuckled and tried to pass her daughter to her best friend but Sofia clung tightly to Arizona and burrowed her head against her mama's neck. "Sofia-mija, it's just Aunt Teddy."
Teddy made a silly face and Sofia grinned but burrowed tightly against her mother.
"Sofia Robbin," Arizona growled softly, "mama cannot make your bottle unless you let me hand you to Aunt Teddy."
She reached for the little girl again but Sofia jerked away. Teddy pouted playfully. "Little tease."
"She gets it from her mother." Arizona rolled her eyes and skillfully pried Sofia's hand from her hair before handing her off to her 'aunt'. For her part, Sofia began to fuss and kick at Teddy as she reached toward Arizona who was pulling out the fixings for a bottle.
"I know," Teddy soothed and bounced the little girl, "it's just so rough being a baby, isn't it Sof?"
"Such a hard life," Arizona agreed with a chuckle. Carefully, she tempered the water and measured the formula before mixing the two together. Teddy turned Sofia in her arms with hopes that if the little girl could see her mama then being separated wouldn't be so hard but when her eyes caught the familiar sight she immediately tried to launch from Teddy's arms toward the bottle. Arizona laughed heartily. "Yeah, you know what this is don't you? Don't want mama at all, you just want your food."
Sofia fought against her auntie's grip but Teddy held on tighter. "You've gotta wait a minute, kiddo, or you're going to be eating formula powder – yuck."
"I don't think she cares." She held the bottle up to the light and deemed it free of chunks before reaching for her daughter. The little girl went willingly and immediately grabbed the bottle from her mother and tipped her head back to drink. "Baby elbow bender."
They walked back to the living room and Teddy flopped on the couch while Arizona took the arm chair, placing Sofia on the floor by her feet, before turning to smile at her best friend. "How was your morning?"
"Good," Teddy promised. "Ran some errands, drank way too much coffee, caught up on some charts. Yours?"
"Not bad," Arizona said and then laughed. "Sofia's having some severe separation anxiety issues now that Calliope is back at work full time and the schedule is just a little hectic for her little world. All the back and forth between here and Mark's and the hospital is hard enough for the three of us and we can vocalize how we're feeling about it so I can only imagine how Sof feels about the whole mess."
"Look at you," Teddy tapped her leg with her toe. "Arizona in mama-mode is a sight to behold."
"Shuddup."
They quieted for a moment and turned their attention to the now content and full Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres who was crawling her way across the living room floor until she latched onto the X-Box controller that Callie had abandoned the night before. The nine month old growled happily before grabbing the controller and looking expectantly at the TV. Both adults let out sharp laughs and Arizona grabbed her cellphone to take a picture for Callie before rescuing the controller from the tiny human's grasps. Sofia looked at her mother with a scrunch of disdain on her nose. "I know, kiddo, mama always takes the fun toys away."
Teddy reached out to snag the little girl before a full blown screaming fit could commence; she lifted the baby up over her head before lowering her enough to blow a raspberry on her stomach. Sofia giggled and grabbed fistfuls of Teddy's long blond hair to shove into her mouth – luckily, Arizona knew her sneaky daughter and moved rapidly to disentangle the hair from her daughter's death grip. "No chewing on hair, monkey."
"Monkey." Teddy cocked an eyebrow as she settled her 'niece' on her lap. "Yang calls her chicken, Callie calls her 'boo', Mark's been switching between mighty oak and little bird, and now you're calling her monkey? That child is going to be so confused."
"Hush," Arizona admonished. "She needs an Aunt Teddy nickname."
"Please, Robbins, don't you pay attention when I talk," she paused to press a kiss to Sofia's plump cheek, "I've been calling her peanut since I saw her all folded up in her blanket in the nursery."
"Right," Arizona laughed. "You're not adding to the problem at all."
"I cannot help it that you all managed to create the most adorable child ever that is so easy to nickname."
"Yeah, well, she is pretty freaking cute when she's not screaming bloody murder in your ear or yanking your hair out or having explosive diarrhea in the middle of her bath."
"Rebel child," she laughed and Sofia clapped her hands. Teddy pulled out her phone and turned on it's front facing camera. "I need more pictures of the two of us; yes, yes I do."
She managed to take one decent picture before two tiny hands yanked the phone from her grip; Sofia pulled the camera close against her face before smashing her lips against it.
"Did you find yourself," Arizona asked with a grin. "Be careful, she's a little hoarder – Mark lost his iPod for two weeks because she managed to hide it in his couch."
Sofia gummed happily on the corner of Teddy's iPhone and let out a loud growl of excitement.
"I am suddenly grateful that I sprung for the plastic case." She tried to pull the cellphone out of Sofia's mouth but was met with a look of horror that had her quickly releasing it. "Okay, cool, you can chew on it. Aunt Teddy doesn't mind."
"Weirdo," Arizona said as she stood from her seat. She dropped a kiss to Sofia's head as she passed them to grab drinks from the fridge for herself and Teddy, stopping to pick up Sofia's mini-pillow pet on her way back through. She perched on the edge of the coffee table and held the stuffed animal out in hopes of a trade. "Look, Sofia-mija, Po wants a cuddle."
Sofia grunted and reached for her stuffed toy. "Yeah!Yeah!Yeah!Ma!Nuh!" She babbled and dropped the drool covered phone on Teddy's pant leg before greedily accepting the alternative.
"Mark found it for her at the store a few weeks ago and now she won't go anywhere without him – I figure we should be worried about her being too attached to it but when it keeps the screaming fits at bay..."
"That is really cute," Teddy agreed and traced a finger over the stuffed panda's soft fur. "I want one."
"I'm going to go and get myself one on payday," Arizona supplied with no shame. "I'll grab you one too."
"What is that saying about growing older but never growing up?"
"Aunt Teddy is being mean to me," Arizona pouted at her daughter. Sofia paid her mother no attention and snuggled further into her aunt's lap. "Traitor."
"She finally figured out who the cool one is in this equation."
"Shut up, Theodora."
"Your mama is so mean to me, peanut," Teddy said with a laugh.
Sofia held her toy out to Teddy, as if to acquiesce the sting of Arizona's teasing, and Teddy smiled before accepting it. "Thanks, baby, I appreciate that."
"Now she'll want it back."
As if on cue, Sofia held her hands out for the toy. Teddy laughed and handed it back to the child. They repeated the process multiple times before Sofia decided to change it up; she would let the bear brush Teddy's hands before yanking it away and she rocked with her whole body, always pulling away at the last second. Arizona and Teddy doubled over with laughter as the little girl continued to rock back and forth, teasing her aunt with the toy, before pausing to take in the adults with a confused expression.
"You are completely priceless, Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres," Teddy said with a kiss to Sofia's soft baby hair. "I love you, kiddo."
"Pretty sure that it would be impossible not too," Arizona added with a shrug.
Sofia, having grown tired of sitting as still as a baby could on her auntie's lap, wiggled until Teddy lowered her to the floor. With her aunt's guidance, she took a few stumbling steps before Teddy lowered her gently to her knees to crawl after her toys.
"She is going to be walking and talking before any of you are ready for it."
Arizona nodded and leaned back to watch her daughter. "Tell me about it and, if we don't start watching our mouths around her, her first words are gonna make my daddy blush."
"I can only imagine what The Colonel's reaction would be if his grandbaby's first word was the f-bomb." She laughed heartily and sighed. "Your kid is the best medicine ever – she's like an upper without all the crappy side affects."
"My daughter is an anti-depressant."
"Something like that." Teddy smiled and looked out the window at the snow falling to blanket the Seattle streets. "I needed some happy today."
Arizona shuffled to the couch and wrapped an arm around her best friend. "I'm glad that Sofia and all her crazy-craziness can help you."
"I miss him, Arizona, more than I ever thought was possible." She sighed and blinked back tears she wasn't willing to let fall. "So much that I can barely breathe."
"I know," Arizona spoke softly. "Anytime you need to be distracted with Sofia cuddles... just let us know and we'll gladly share baby girl's happiness."
"Thanks," she smiled and shook her head as if to shake the sadness away. "So, if Aunt Teddy wants to spoil a certain Sofia this holiday season, what size clothes should I get for the munchkin?"
"She is just now in her six to nine month clothing," Arizona explained, "so if you want to get her something for winter then six to nine months should work but if you go for summer then I would get the nine to twelve size."
"Can do," Teddy made a mental note. "And the toys should be as loud and flashy as humanly possible, right?"
"Only if she's leaving them at daddy's."
"Duly noted."
Teddy glanced at her watch and frowned at the time; she was due at work in a half hour. She snagged Sofia up off the floor as she crawled over Teddy's feet. "Hey, peanut, I gotta go soon so can I have one more quick cuddle?"
Sofia's body protested for a minute before she settled into Teddy's arms and rested her head against her aunt's chest. The surgeon pressed kisses to the little girl's hair and bounced her knees rhythmically to pacify the need for movement as she settled into soft complacency. Arizona grabbed Teddy's phone that had fallen onto the couch and snapped a couple pictures of the two of them lost in their cuddling. "Hey, c'mere, I need one of the three of us."
Arizona agreed, she could never have enough pictures of her daughter and extended family, and moved over to the couch. She turned on the forward facing camera, extended her arm and settled in next to the pair to snap the photo. It turned out beautifully and Arizona sent it to herself before locking her friend's phone and giving it back to her. "We should do this more often."
"Definitely," Teddy agreed, "whenever you have some free time and neither of us are working – let me know and I will make it work."
Arizona smiled and stroked a finger over Sofia's face. "Sounds good, huh, monkey, we need more time with our favorite Aunt Teddy."
Sofia appeared to give her vote of agreement when she pressed a slobbery, open mouth kiss to the side of Teddy's face. The woman laughed and wiped the drool off with the sleeve of her shirt; she pressed several kisses to her cheeks before passing her off to her mama. "I've gotta go but I love you bunches, Sofia Robbin."
Teddy walked around the couch to toe on her shoes and wrapped an arm around Arizona's neck to hug her. Arizona squeezed her best friend's arm and smiled. "Love you, Teddy."
"Yeah, me too." Teddy leaned over Arizona's shoulder and kissed the crown of Sofia's head. "Thanks for the miracle cuddles – best medicine ever."