Title: Find a Brick

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PGish

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: Standalone AU

Summary: The events of Season Seven, but slightly tweaked. How does the post 7x13 world work out when Callie drunkenly winds up in Alex Karev's bed instead?

Author's Note: Beta'd by the utterly spectacularly weirdy reindeer, roughian. Coached by the ever patient strandedinaber. I know there are lots of "Karev is the sperm donor" fics out there, but I haven't seen the Karev is the Season 7 baby daddy. So here goes nothing?

"Wait. You're what?"

"Karev, you heard me," Callie pleads, fighting back a wave of tears. She feels like she hasn't stopped crying in days, hand pressed instinctively to her belly.

"Shit. I'm just a resident. I can't afford-."

Alex feels sick to his stomach, feels his world tilt and the cubbies of the residents' lounge swim before his eyes. He grabs the bench underneath him, knuckles white as he seeks to center himself.

"Alex. I'm not asking you for money. I'm not asking you for anything. You... have a right to know."

"Shit."

"You said that."

"We were careful, right? I know we were drunk, but I'm careful about this!"

Callie grins ruefully. That night, which had started as good-natured complaining about the woman who chose Africa over them, with much tequila involved, is pretty freaking blurry to her, but she is pretty sure they were careful, whatever good that did them.

"Well, we beat the odds. Look, you can have whatever role you want in this kid's life, Karev. I'm not asking for anything, but I don't want to keep you from anything. You can be the dad."

Pure panic crosses the resident's face.

"Or you can be the fun uncle. Or you can be some peds doc we see at the hospital sometimes. I just – I might start to show soon, and I just told Arizona-."

"Robbins. Shit! Robbins. Are you back with Robbins?"

"I – I don't know. Maybe? I told her, and she cried, and... she hasn't left yet."

"And you told her it's mine?"

"Yes."

"Well, I hope you and the baby are really happy, 'cause she's gonna kill me."

"Alex. She's not going to kill you."

"Yes, she is!"

"She's not. She's-."

"Going to take it from here," Arizona interrupts. "Calliope, I called Fields. She said if you call now, she'll fit you in tomorrow. I need to talk to Alex, though, alone. Please. I promise not to kill him. I couldn't now."

"Arizona..." Callie breathes as her former (future?) girlfriend brushes her fingers lightly against her shoulder.

"You should be resting, anyway."

"I'll meet you in the lobby. We'll walk back to the building together?" Callie asks tentatively.

"Sure," Arizona agrees, bringing her eyes back to Callie's with all the reassurance she can muster right now.

Callie leaves, and the door swings shut, closing in the silence. Karev stares at the scrub cap in his hands, praying for this to be a dream. He supposes there are, objectively speaking, worse women he could've knocked up than Torres. She is hot, so his kid'll be pretty, and she's rich, so his kid'll be, too, and on the spectrum of women he's slept with, she's certainly one of the sanest.

But one drunken bitchfest about his former mentor has turned into the ultimate betrayal of the only person at this hospital who ever believed had a chance. Who believed he was a worthwhile person.

Until he became the love of her life's baby daddy, at least.

Oh shit. He is gonna have a kid. Or even just some kid running around the hospital, looking like him.

"Look, it was just one night. We were really drunk. You were gone. I didn't mean to-."

"Stop talking," Arizona orders.

"Sorry," Alex grumbles.

"There's a baby coming," she says softly, shell-shocked. "I came back from Africa, and she's pregnant. And I wanted babies, dreamed about her babies in Malawi, but not... now. Not like this. Maybe I shouldn't complicate her life. There's... There's a baby."

"I freaking know there's a baby!" Alex explodes, standing.

"Don't yell at me, Karev. I didn't do this."

"No, you just ran away and abandoned us. Her," he corrects. "I wasn't trying to get involved in your lesbian drama."

"And yet here you are. Right in the middle."

Alex crosses his arms over his chest, reaching an impasse. He relaxes just the slightest bit and points out:

"She wants you in."

"She wants me in," Arizona confirms, awed.

And then it clicks for him.

"Where do I sign?"

"Karev. It's not that-."

"Are you in?"

"I'm so in," Arizona admits, a little breathless. "The rational part of me know that's crazy, but I love her, and I'm in."

"A kid deserves that. Parents who love each other, without me screwing it up. I can sign away my rights, and you can adopt. Right? It works that way?"

"It does, Alex, but I'm not asking you-."

"I'm offering. My history? I've disadvantaged your kid enough as it is."

"My kid?"

"Your kid," Alex nods.

"And who would you be?"

"Uncle Alex. Or no one, if you want. If you think it'd be better."

Arizona lets out a shaky sigh, eyes teary, as she practically collapses onto the other end of the bench.

"Don't do this for me."

"I'm doing it for the kid! You're twice the parent I'd be."

"I could be the mom, and you could stay the dad. I'd just be the... step-mom."

"That sounds awful, Robbins. You'd be doing me a favor, anyway. I'm not made for a kid."

Arizona sighs, struggling to accept this.

"Okay. Uncle Alex. Thank you." She wipes at her eyes. "And if you ever touch her again..."

"You were in Malawi. You walked out on us!"

Arizona arches an eyebrow.

"I won't. I promise. If you promise to take care of your kid."

"I promise." All the worries rush at Arizona again, and she begins to object: "But it's not fair to take it away from-."

"If it was Callie on her own, I'd step up, alright? I'm not that dick that walks away and leaves a kid parent-less, and makes Torres do it all alone. But if he's gonna have two parents, why screw that up?"

"You can be the uncle," Arizona reminds herself.

"Right. I can do guy things with it if you want. If you need. But anything more, I'll just mess it up. Tell me what to sign and I will."

"Sleep on it, okay? You can't sign anything away until after he or she is born."

"But I will."

Arizona nods, standing and heading for the door.

"Are- are we okay?" Alex asks nervously.

"I don't know," Arizona admits, wiping at her face again. "Goodnight, Alex."

"Did you hear Torres is pregnant?" Cristina gossips a few days later.

Alex looks up and clears his throat, while the news causes Meredith to slam a few more things into her cubby.

"I guess some people don't even have to try," she says on her way out the door.

"I wonder who the baby daddy is," Cristina muses, munching on a carrot stick. "The nurses already have a pool on when Robbins's flight to Malawi is."

"Robbins isn't going anywhere."

"Aw, devil spawn. So protective of his peds mommy."

Alex tries not to flinch.

"Why don't you just shut up about it, anyway?" he complains. "You're supposed to be Callie's friend, and you're supposed to give her a little support, not talk shit about her."

"I wasn't... Oh my god."

"What?" Alex demands.

"You're the baby daddy. Holy-."

"Shut up."

"Oh my god," Cristina repeats, dropping her carrot.

"Shut up. It's not your business."

"I have to..."

"Do nothing, alright? It doesn't matter who provided the sperm. That baby is Robbins's."

"Whoa. Does that mean you're – Whoa."

"That never gonna be my baby okay? So no one in the hospital needs to know anything. No one."

"But I have to tell Mer."

"No one."

"You're just gonna give it away? Like a re-gifting?" Cristina asks again, dumbfounded. "It's not a scented candle or an ugly sweater, you know."

"You of all people shouldn't give me shit about not wanting to be a dad."

"Fair enough. Do you have a lawyer?"

"What? No."

"Oh. I was just asking."

"I don't know need a lawyer. I need a sheet of paper that says I'm not the father."

"You need a lawyer. And a helmet to protect you from the bricks, cause Robbins is gonna go Marine brat on your ass."

"Great."

"Good morning, Callie. How are you feeling?"

"Okay," the woman on Lucy Fields's exam bed answers shakily.

"Good. Are you ready to get started?"

"No! Maybe? She said she'd be here. Promised, actually. But this is a lot to handle, and maybe I pushed her too hard. Maybe she's not coming. Yeah, we should just start, because she's not coming. I've screwed this all up so much."

"Ohh- kay. Who are we waiting for?"

"My girlfriend. Or maybe not. I mean, I think..." Callie trails off, overcome by the hormones raging inside her, tears streaming down her face. "I... My girlfriend left me. To go to Africa. And I slept with someone else. Who was, obviously, not a woman." She gestures to her still flat stomach. "And now she's back, and she might be in, she said so but... I don't know. I've ruined everything."

"Okay. Is there someone else we can call to hold your hand?"

Callie whips out her phone and sends out a brief text before dissolving into further tears.

Lucy sighs and sits back, waiting for the back up as her patient sobs inconsolably on the table. Five minutes later, a tall man shoves into the door.

"Cal, what's wrong? Is everything okay with the baby?"

He immediately puts his arms around her.

"Are you the dad?" Fields asks, trying to sort all of this out.

"What? No!" the man she now recognizes as Mark Sloan says immediately.

"No!" Callie further objects.

"Unless you need me to be, Torres. Did you need me to be the dad? I can be the dad," Sloan begins.

"No!" Torres yells again. "No, I don't need you, I need Ari-."

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I'm late. My surgery ran over and, oh, I'm so... Mark?"

The new arrival, Dr. Arizona Robbins, faces off silently with Sloan, until, sniffling and shaky, Torres pulls herself together.

"Mark, get out," Arizona orders, then continues, more gently. "Thanks for covering, but I have this."

She takes a step towards Callie and puts an arm around her shoulder.

"What's going on?"

Callie raises an eyebrow above a tear-swollen eye, and Mark shakes his head, still obviously confused by what is going on.

"Just go Mark. I needed someone to hold my hand, but Arizona is here." Her voice breaks over that beautiful truth.

"Okay. But I want, like, a picture at least."

Callie nods, and with one more worried look, Sloan slips from the room.

"Well okay, this is fun," Lucy tries to gain control of the situation. "Can we start? Is this who we were waiting on, Callie?"

Callie nods again, burying her face in Arizona's shoulder.

"Can we, um, have a minute?" Arizona asks, blushing a little.

"Oh, right. Knock when you're ready."

"I'm sorry," Callie sobs into Arizona's shoulder, and Arizona's heart breaks.

"What are you sorry for?" she tries for the joke. "I'm the one who was late."

"Arizona, you know what for. I thought you weren't coming. I thought..."

"I wouldn't just not show up, Calliope."

"You're still mad."

Arizona sighs, dropping a kiss to the top of Callie's head. "I am. I really am. You... slept with someone else, and well, I'll never be able to forget that, I guess. There's a tiny human to remind me."

"I know."

"And I was over there, crying all the time, missing you, thinking of you, and you were sleeping with someone else. A man, which yeah, definitely ticks me off even more, but Callie, I... I could barely breathe."

"You left me."

"I know."

"I couldn't breathe either. I just needed to clear my head, to try to forget you, and it didn't work. It didn't work at all! In some twisted way, he was the only one who understood what I was feeling. The only one who missed you too."

"Oh, Calliope, I know, but... I... You're pregnant."

"I know," Callie sniffles. "And I'm terrified I've ruined everything. That I'll mess up this baby, and we'll never be the same again."

"Of course we'll never be the same again. There's a baby."

Callie just cries harder, clinging to her.

"You don't have to be here."

"I know," Arizona says softly, stroking her hair. "But I am. Let's get you checked out, okay?"

She knocks on the door, and Lucy comes in.

"Okay. Let's start again, shall we? How far along do you think you are?"

tbc