Title: What a Difference a Year Makes Pt. 1
Author: Jenrind
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I just tweeted Shonda to see if she'd give me a piece of her show, but alas and alack, no luck. So, I do not own the characters of Grey's Anatomy, and I make no money off of the following.
Beta: Thanks to Strandedinaber for doing the job and extremely quickly at that!
Summary: Callie and Arizona plan for their very first Christmas as a family, but what happens when Arizona receives a call to go to Africa for the Holiday?
December 12
Callie entered her apartment after a long but exhilarating shift and tossed her coat haphazardly in the typical direction of the sofa. She frowned when she heard it hit the floor. Turning to pick it up her eyes opened wide as she noted not only a missing sofa but also the Christmas spectacle that had replaced it.
"Uh, Arizona?" Callie asked, looking around for her wife.
She and Arizona had thrown up a few decorations after Thanksgiving. And they'd bought a huge tree the previous weekend. A tree that had been sitting forlornly in their living room ever since, as neither she nor Arizona had wanted to deal with the hassle of adding the lights. Now though, the whole thing twinkled with hundreds of clear lights, a beautiful garland with candles glowing festooned their mantle; every picture that graced their walls had been carefully wrapped in Christmas paper; and the coup de grace, an electric Rudolph stood proudly in place of their couch.
Arizona, clad in a ridiculously cheery Christmas sweater, popped out of the kitchen into the living room and grinned in excitement at her wife, "Callie, you're home early. I'm not done yet."
"Seriously? What exactly is missing?" Callie asked. Other than Santa and his eight other reindeer she thought to herself, but wisely didn't say out loud.
"I was just going to make some mulled wine. Of course, if you think something's missing I've got a few more pieces we can add," Arizona said with a dimpled smile before she turned and headed back into the kitchen.
"Everything's perfect just as it is," Callie said quickly. "You've been…busy."
"It's Sofia's first Christmas, I wanted it to be special."
"Oh, it's special all right," Callie replied, and while there may have been a bit of residual snark, she was beginning to come around as the surprise wore off and she began to grin.
"You don't like it." Arizona's voice was flat as she popped the cork to the second red wine bottle and began pouring it into the pan.
Callie mentally smacked herself before heading into the kitchen and placing her hands on Arizona's stiff shoulders, "Arizona – it's awesome."
"Really?" Arizona asked skeptically, keeping her back turned to Callie even as she played with the wine on the stove. "Because you don't…"
Callie forced Arizona around to face her.
"I was surprised. You've gotta admit, you're hard to predict. One minute you're snarling about baby showers and birthday parties and the next we've got our very own Rudolph." Which reminded Callie, "Where exactly is our sofa?"
"At Mark's. I needed the extra room."
Callie nodded slowly, "Aaand – we have a perfectly comfortable floor that we don't sit on nearly enough."
Arizona had the grace to blush at this, so Callie grabbed her opportunity and kissed her wife, "You're amazing."
Arizona perked up and smiled up at Callie "I am?"
"Definitely," Callie replied. "Let's host a Christmas Eve party," she blurted.
Now it was Arizona's turn to blink, "Okay…" she replied, a bit tentative even as Callie got more enthused.
"My parents used to do it every year in Miami."
Arizona smiled gamely, "That sounds like fun."
"It's kind of a tradition. I want Sofia to have that…"
"Me too," Arizona replied softly.
"Great," Callie said quickly, refusing to get wrapped up in any sentiment surrounding her mostly absent relatives.
"I'll invite the gang, but you're on point for Teddy."
"Callie, I'm not sure she's going to want to…"
"Arizona, when was the last time you talked to Teddy?" Callie's sudden exasperation made Arizona feel even guiltier than she already did.
"We talk," she replied defensively.
"Um hm."
"She's probably working that day anyway," Arizona added. Because really, what else was there?
"Arizona, Teddy's still mad at me. And I get it – I totally get it. But she's also mad at Owen and Cristina. You're the only one outside of the anger zone. She needs you."
"I know, I know. We talk, we do." Callie didn't look convinced.
This wasn't the first time the subject of Teddy had come up since Henry's death. Callie had wanted to have her over for Thanksgiving but Arizona had explained that Teddy was still too raw and she was afraid that seeing Callie in a social setting so soon might have set her off. Callie had accepted that at the time, but she'd also encouraged Arizona to take Teddy out on her own, so far to no avail.
"Invite her." Callie said, in a tone that brooked no argument. "Tell her she can get drunk, create a huge scene and sleep it off on our sof – our extremely comfortable floor. It'll be just like Christmas Eve back in Miami with my Great Uncle Jorge."
"Yeah, because that sounds like so much more fun than working," Arizona replied under her breath.
"It's going to suck for her regardless," Callie replied. "But at least she won't be alone."
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe alone's better?" Arizona asked even as she already knew the answer to that one.
"No. Talk to her."
Arizona sighed, "You're not going to let this go are you?"
"Nope," Callie said, completely unrepentant.
"Fine," Arizona said. Callie saw the pout start to take hold and swept in for an encouraging kiss before it could completely manifest.
"Thank you," Callie said softly. Arizona stepped forward to deepen the kiss but Callie stepped back. Arizona frowned,
"That's all I get?"
"Consider it a down payment," Callie deadpanned, pleased with herself even as Arizona smacked her ass in retaliation.
"Hey!"
"You're mulling the wine now," Arizona said firmly, stepping around her wife and out of the kitchen.
"Was there ever any doubt?" Callie asked even as she reached for the spices.
The next morning Arizona, and Callie with Sofia in tow, waited for the hospital's elevator to take Sofia to daycare. As it opened a preoccupied Teddy hurried out and smacked straight into Callie.
"Hey, sorry about that," Teddy said glancing up in surprise as she bounced off of Callie.
"No worries," Callie replied, holding Sofia tightly. She stepped around Teddy and into the vacant elevator. "I'll just take Sofia to daycare," Callie continued with a pointed look at her wife.
Arizona knew she was stuck, and let the doors close without her, "Hey Teddy, got a moment?"
"Actually, I'm on my way to a consult in the ER," Teddy replied distractedly, her face buried in her hospital iPAD, already walking in that direction.
Momentarily flummoxed, Arizona paused before doing a quick step to catch up. "I'll walk with you then, this'll only take a minute."
Arizona fell into step next to Teddy and wracked her brain for something to say. She decided to just cut to the chase. "I'm a really crappy friend," Arizona began.
"What?" Teddy asked, finally glancing up from her iPad.
"I've been avoiding you – oh, not you you, I know we see each other practically every day, but well, Callie called me out on it last night and she's kinda right."
"It's okay, Arizona, I realize I'm not exactly the life of the party lately," Teddy said.
"It's not that. I mean, I know you're working every shift you possibly can, and you've been sleeping in the Attendings' Lounge and the last thing in the world you want to do is stop for even a second because if you stop or sleep without exhaustion forcing you to do so you're going to think about the fact that it's Christmas time and that just really completely sucks at the moment. If I could I'd wave a magic wand for you and make it January 10th, you know after all of the hangovers and bowl games have finally ended and most reasonable people have thrown away their exceedingly dead Christmas trees, but since I can't I thought I'd try to help by ignoring…"
"The dead elephant in the room?" Teddy asked with a raised brow and not a tear in sight.
"Yeah," Arizona replied softly. She sucked at this, she knew that, and she really really wanted to run away or talk about patients or something silly and keep ignoring the horrible dead elephant because if she could do that, it meant that she could also continue ignoring the fact that looking at Teddy was like looking at the Ghost of Christmas future had she not gotten her very own miracle.
"I don't like to think about what my life would be like if Callie hadn't survived. It's…terrifying. But I think, I think working 24/7 makes complete and total sense to me."
"Everyone wants me to stop, but if I stop…"
"You think."
"Yeah."
"So, Callie wants me to invite you to our Christmas Eve party, but I bet you're…"
"Working. Definitely working. Both days, 48 hours if I can swing a great big pile up."
Arizona nodded. She understood. To the point that the thought of everything that Teddy was burying beneath the work made her slightly nauseous. And while she did get it, she also got that there would be a breaking point at some point. It was inevitable.
"Listen, I don't know how late this thing is going to go. Knowing Callie probably pretty late, but if that pile up doesn't manifest you should come over whenever. And if you need a place to crash, or a shoulder to cry on, or a baby to snuggle, we've got all three."
"Thanks, but I'm…"
"Working, I know. And I'll let you get back to it," Arizona said starting to back away from Teddy and towards the elevator,
"But Teddy, when you're ready to stop working, I'm here okay? And so's Callie. Even if you want to yell at her some more, she's…she's really good at this type of thing, okay?"
"Okay," Teddy said. Which might as well have been code for, 'when hell freezes over.'
"I'm not going to stop bugging you about this," Arizona said.
"I never thought otherwise," Teddy replied to herself as Arizona disappeared behind the doors of the elevator.
December 13
Arizona sat in the lone chair that graced their living room, feet propped on the ottoman, computer on her lap, engrossed in picking another Christmas gift for her wife. She'd already bought Callie's main gift, a beautiful emerald necklace that Arizona's favorite jeweler had come across on a recent buying trip. Now she was admiring the numerous assorted bra and panty sets from La Perla and finding it difficult to choose just one. She'd narrowed it down to the Brunello underwire in blue/black, and the Toscana set in red. The sound of a loud curse from the hall caused her to slam her laptop closed even as she jumped up to investigate.
Opening the door into the hall she caught sight of her wife attempting to wrestle an incredibly large, and obviously heavy box out of the elevator and into the hallway.
"Callie, what in the world is that thing?"
"It's a grill with a roasting spit."
Arizona raised a skeptical brow as she wondered just where exactly in their apartment Callie expected to put such a thing, let alone use it.
"What size turkey are you planning again?" She asked.
"It's not for a turkey. It's for the pig," Callie replied, grunting as she finally managed to get the damn thing out of the elevator.
"The pig? You mean a ham, right?"
"Nope. I mean a pig," Callie said as if roasting an entire pig was the most natural thing in the world.
Arizona reluctantly joined Callie in the hallway to help push the box towards their apartment.
"Where exactly does one get a whole pig?" Arizona asked with a grunt as the box moved a few more feet. "And, why?"
"It's for our Christmas Eve Party. We talked about it." Callie said.
Together, the two of them managed to finally maneuver the box, with said pig spit, over the threshold and into their apartment.
Arizona frowned as she straightened, "You know, I think I'd have remembered a pig spit with a giant roasting pig."
"It's tradition," Callie said even as she pushed the thing away from the door to take up its spot next to Rudolph. Removing her coat she frowned and then hung it off of Rudolph's antler.
"Where are we having this party exactly?" Arizona asked, still fixated on the concept of roasting an entire pig. "Cause I don't think pig roasting falls under the terms of our lease."
"On the roof," Callie replied immediately. "I've already talked to the landlord," Callie replied.
Spotting the recently vacated chair, Callie collapsed into it and took a long drink of Arizona's white wine before grimacing and putting it back.
"Of course," Arizona said from the kitchen where she was already pouring Callie a glass of red and grabbing her bottle of white to top off as she joined her wife in their chair. Callie gratefully took her glass of wine and wrapped her other arm around Arizona's waist, kissing her neck.
"Hey, did you talk to Teddy?"
"I did. She's not coming."
"Arizona…"
"No. Trust me on this. She's going to work and she's going to try her best to forget that it's a holiday – and that's okay."
"She needs…"
"She needs for Henry to be alive. But he isn't. And there's nothing we can do but remind her of what she doesn't have. Believe me. I get it."
Callie gave her wife a comforting squeeze. They didn't talk about the accident. For Callie it was all fairly surreal. She only remembered pieces of the accident itself and the first few weeks of her recovery had been tempered by large doses of morphine coupled with maternal hormones that had focused all of her attention on Sofia. In some ways she now realized, she'd had it easier. She couldn't even fathom how she'd have survived had their positions been reversed.
"I love you," Callie said.
"Me too," Arizona replied simply giving Callie a warm kiss on the cheek and snuggling in further.
"I'm still planning on roasting a pig."
"I know."
December 14
Arizona stood at the nurses' station, cell phone to her ear as she repeatedly nodded her head even as she clenched her eyes closed in dismay.
"Yes, of course I understand. We've been planning this for the last four months. Families are coming from all over. I'll look at flights and be there as soon as I possibly can."
Arizona continued to nod and made a few more pleasant assurances before she hung up the phone. "Crap." Callie, Callie was going to kill her.
Arizona delayed the inevitable explosion by tracking down Teddy in the Attending's Lounge.
"Hey."
"Hey, how's it going? Do you have a giant dead pig in your freezer yet?"
"Not yet, thank God. But that's not the issue. Are all of your shots up to date?"
"Excuse me?"
"Your shots. You've only been out of the military a couple of years, right, so I'm assuming you got every shot known to man?"
"With the scars to prove it, why?"
"Good, good. Because you're coming with me."
"I am?"
"Yep."
"And where exactly am I going that I need all of my shots?"
"Africa. Lucy's father had a heart attack so she needs to come back stateside. But we had this whole Christmas miracle happening. Families from all over are bringing their kids for all types of surgeries. We have extra surgeons flying in to help, but we can definitely use one more awesome heart surgeon."
"Africa huh?"
"You won't forget. But at least you can make better Christmases for other people."
"When do we leave?"
"The earliest flight that'll get us there leaves tomorrow night. Then we'll stay through the end of the year."
For a moment Teddy almost lost her now famous composure as she started to tear up. "That sounds…thank you."
"Don't thank me yet. I still have to survive telling my wife."