A/N: picking up where You Really Got Me left off, so this isn't GA canon, it's Madaboutagirl canon!
Hope everyone enjoys their Holidays!
"You want to host the Christmas party here?" Arizona asks the next morning.
"Well, we do have the biggest house," Meredith points out as she pours another cup of coffee. "This is the one thing that I've always done, it's my tradition to host the Christmas party."
"But this would be us hosting it, are you ready for what that means?" Arizona questions, still surprised that Meredith would consider having everyone over to their house.
"Arizona everyone knows about us, it's not a big deal." Meredith admits, "Are you uncomfortable with it?"
"No, I just. I guess I'm a little surprised that you're up for it. Thanksgiving was so crazy with my parents and everyone coming and going, I just thought Christmas would just be us and the kids." Arizona replies.
"Christmas will just be us and the kids, but I really want us to have the Christmas Party, okay?" Meredith asks.
"If that's what you want, then yes." Arizona replies leaning in to kiss her.
"Meredith and Arizona are hosting the Christmas Party?" Callie asks as she enters the lounge.
"Yes, is there a problem?" Bailey challenges the brunette.
"No, I'm just surprised. I was hoping to host it this year," Callie admits, a little disappointed.
"The Christmas Party has always been Meredith's thing, I'm just happy that she wants to do it," Bailey remarks.
"Maybe I'll have a New Year's party, start a new tradition," Callie remarks.
"Don't you remember that New Year's party that Yang had at your apartment, you seriously want to do that?" Bailey asks.
"That wasn't my party, that was Christina's and yes, I want to do this. It will just be like an open house, people can just drop by throughout the day." She explains.
"Hmm, well Ben is on call New Year's so if you want, I'll help you," Bailey offers surprising Callie.
"Okay, see this will be fun. And we can invite everyone at the Christmas party," Callie points out.
"So what are you going to do about Blake? You going to invite her to your party after everything that's happened between you two?" Bailey asks.
"Well, it shouldn't be an issue, I already checked the on call sheet, she's working." Callie replies.
"Hmm, I'm sure that it's just a coincidence that Blake is working next weekend during the party at Meredith's too?" Bailey quips.
"I can't speak for Meredith, but I did notice that myself," Callie remarks.
"Just tell me what you need me to do," Alex groans as Arizona and Meredith sit down at his table at lunch.
"I've ordered everything, I just need you to pick it up from the liquor store and bring it over and set up the bar," Meredith explains.
"Okay, but I'm not bartending," he says firmly.
"I don't need you to bartend, I've got an intern to do that," Meredith replies.
"Who? Cross or DeLuca?" Arizona asks.
"DeLuca, of course, Cross is working." Meredith says, "This way DeLuca is there and so is Maggie, consider it my Christmas gift to my sister."
"You're giving your sister an intern for Christmas? Okay, that's all kinds of weird," Alex points out.
"She already has the intern, I'm just helping her enjoy the party," Meredith quips.
"Does Maggie know about this?" Arizona asks. "She's been trying not to date the intern remember?"
"The intern makes her happy, they should totally date," Meredith counters back.
"I think you shouldn't interfere," Arizona remarks.
"I'm not interfering, I'm just providing an opportunity," Meredith points out, "Besides, he'll be busy bartending all night, so she won't have to interact with him if she doesn't want to."
Reluctantly Arizona gives up, there's no arguing with her about this. The blonde reaches over and takes her hand under the table and squeezes it, "Hey, I need to get back. You'll come up after your surgery so we can go over the list again before we go to the store?" Arizona asks.
"You're so bossy, we can just go to the store, we've already made the list," Meredith points out.
"Oh no, we did that at Thanksgiving and it was a disaster. We're going to sit down and go back over the list before we go to the store Meredith. You seriously don't want to mess with me," Arizona teases.
"Okay, okay, I'll come to your office after my surgery," she says laughing and leaning in to kiss the blonde lightly.
The move makes Arizona blush, she's still nervous about having everyone know that she and Meredith are together. Everyone thought Meredith would never date again after Derek died. And Arizona knows that people talk behind their back about it and she's heard the rumors that don't exactly paint her in the most flattering light. At least the Christmas Party will be an opportunity for people to see them together as a couple and hopefully see how happy they are.
Glancing about quickly, Arizona lets go of her hand and rushes off.
"Dude, every time you do that she about loses it," Alex points out, "You know what people are saying behind her back right?"
"I've heard, it's so not fair. You know that she didn't pursue me. If anything I pursued her," Meredith points out.
"Well, you know how people are," he reminds her, "They loved Derek and you can't blame them for being surprised that you're with a woman and it's not Yang."
"You should have seen Christina's face when she found out about Arizona," Meredith says laughing.
"I bet, how did it happen?" he asks curiously.
"I was Skyping her one night and Arizona came home, Christina figured it out before I did actually. And she called me on it," Meredith explains. "I still can't believe it, Derek's gone, but I'm okay. More than okay, I'm happy and the kids are happy, granted they don't exactly understand yet. But it works and we're all good. I didn't think I'd find it again, you know, after Derek, but Arizona is amazing."
"Look, I'm just happy that the both of you are happy. Now I'm planning to propose to Jo again, do you think I should do it Christmas eve or New Year's Eve?" He asks.
"Hmm, are you sure that she'll say yes this time?" Meredith asks.
"Good point, maybe I should wait until New Year's Eve, then if she says no, I can just get drunk and forget about it," he grumbles.
"You shouldn't ask her if you're not sure she'll say yes," Meredith points out.
"I just don't understand her, she's more infuriating than Izzy," he complains.
"Well, you need to stop comparing them. That's rule number one. Rule number two is to make sure that you're both on the same page, you pretty much blindsided her last time, so do it right this time. Talk to her about the future, make some plans so that when you do propose it will make sense to her." Meredith advises.
"So where was all this advice last time?" He asks.
"I have a better perspective this time," she says shrugging.
"April and Amelia sent me their recipes, so I've made a master list of ingredients and I've crossed off what we already have, so this is the final grocery list, do you want to go over it with me again?" Arizona asks when Meredith sits down in her office.
"God, no I don't want to go over it. Arizona, you spent all afternoon on this didn't you?" Meredith asks.
"Uh, not all afternoon. I had a minor procedure earlier," she admits.
"Okay, listen you're too stressed out about this. I'm going to call Maggie and have her go shopping with me, you need a break," Meredith says leaning over and placing a light kiss on her cheek.
"Oh no, you don't, nice try though. We're doing this together, I don't trust you to get everything on this list and I'm not running around at the last minute trying to find the things that you missed," Arizona says firmly.
"You're making this not fun," Meredith points out.
"I thought that you'd say that. Would it be more fun, if I told you that Callie's taking Zola and Sofia tonight and Amelia and Owen are taking Bailey and Ellis." Arizona asks rolling her office chair closer to Meredith.
"Wait, we have no kids tonight at all?" Meredith asks surprised.
"No kids," Arizona replies leaning in to kiss her lips.
"But we still have to go to the grocery store," she points out.
"Yes, but we'll get some take out and have the rest of the evening to ourselves," the blonde counters, kissing her neck.
"Hmm, then let's get going," Meredith says breathlessly.
"Remind me next year that this is too much work!" Meredith exclaims as they unload the car.
"How did you and Derek do this?" Arizona asks.
"Oh, he did most of it all I had to do was decorate," she admits.
"Well, if we do this next year, we're hiring a caterer," Arizona replies.
"I was going to hire a caterer this year, but you said you wanted to do it," Meredith reminds her.
"Yeah, that was before we went shopping. I'm over it now, thank god Amelia and April are cooking all of this for us. I'll be sitting right there drinking wine," she says laughing.
"I'll be sitting right beside you," Meredith says setting the last bags down on the counter and pulling the blonde into her arms.
"Hmm," Arizona says leaning in to kiss her. "Let's get this stuff put away, so we can enjoy our quiet house."
"Meredith is home decorating and April and Amelia are cooking," Arizona explains when Bailey asks her why she's at the hospital this morning.
"Okay, but why are you here?" Bailey asks again.
Arizona looks at her and shakes her head, "I'm not going back there until the decorations are done. She's impossible to help, we argued just getting the decorations down from the attic." Arizona explains.
"Well, you'll have to get used to it," Bailey says laughing, then realizes what she's implied. "I mean, she's kind of particular about that house, Izzy used to make her crazy always changing things around."
"Bailey relax, I know what you meant," Arizona replies smiling at her friend who is clearly uncomfortable.
"Look, I know it's not my place, but how are you both doing? Is it serious between you?" Bailey asks.
"Are you asking out of concern or curiosity?" Arizona asks.
"I'm asking as your friend, who wants you both to be happy," Bailey snaps at her.
"Well, we are happy but we haven't really talked about the future yet, this is still pretty new for us," Arizona admits.
"I understand that, but with the kids and everything, it's just nice to see you all so happy," Bailey replies smiling at her. "I just hope it works out for you both."
"I hate going alone, I should have found a date for tonight." Callie says nervously as she changes clothes in the locker room beside Jo.
"Look, Alex is already there, he had to set up the bar for Meredith. Why don't we just go over together?" Jo suggests.
"Oh, that would help, then at least I'm not showing up alone. Yeah, let's do that. Do you want to come home with me? Callie asks, "I'm not wearing this," she points to what she wore into work.
"Ah yes, that would be great. I'd much rather get dressed at your place than this locker room," Jo admits.
"Okay, grab your stuff and let's go." Callie says, happy to have company for a change.
Entering the house, Arizona admires the decorations, the house looks fantastic and now she kind of feels like an ass for spending the day at the hospital.
The kitchen is all cleaned up and smells wonderful, but no one is there.
Heading upstairs, Arizona enters the bedroom to see Meredith taking a nap. She sits down carefully on the bed and takes off her shoes and slacks, then slips in beside her.
Waking up slightly as the blonde spoons her, Meredith smiles at her, "Hey, you're home."
"I'm sorry that I bailed on you," Arizona says softly, "The house looks great."
"Hmm, I'm glad you're home now," she says turning into her and kissing her neck. "The sitter already picked the kids up," she whispers into Arizona's ear and nuzzles her neck.
"I thought you were sleeping," Arizona replies slipping her hands up under her t-shirt.
"I was just waiting for you to come home," Meredith says as the blonde removes her shirt.
"Why didn't you tell me that you, I would've come home sooner," Arizona says as she removes her own blouse.
"Maybe I was testing you, to see if you missed me enough to come home early," Meredith teases.
"Hmm, I hope that I passed the test," Arizona replies as she teases her with her tongue.
"Oh you're definitely passing the test," Meredith replies thickly.
Alex pulls up to the house and notices both cars are there, so he starts unloading everything onto the porch. Then he goes to open the door and is surprised that it's locked, so he pulls out his keys and unlocks it, and yells "Hey, Meredith!". Then he starts to move everything into the house.
Upstairs they freeze, they forgot about Alex, "Hey I'll be right down, we're getting dressed!" Meredith replies.
"Great," Alex grumbles, he knows exactly what that means. "Uh, look I've got it all in. I'll just go get ice and be back in half and hour, okay?" He yells up the stairs.
"Okay," Meredith yells back at him, trying not to laugh.
"We should probably get in the shower and actually start getting ready," Arizona points out a little embarrassed.
"What a great idea," Meredith says playfully, climbing out of the bed. "I'll start the water."
"Meredith, we really need to shower, he'll be back soon." Arizona reminds her as she enters the bathroom.
"Oh, don't worry about Alex, he'll take his time," she replies pulling her into the shower, "now where were we?"
Amelia enters the house to see Alex sitting on the couch with a beer. "Where's Meredith?" She asks.
"They're still getting ready?" He says smirking.
"Seriously? I thought it was Derek that always made them late for everything, clearly it was Meredith," she remarks laughing.
"What do you think about them? Is it serious?" Alex asks.
"If it's not serious, it will be. I mean they're perfect together. They're happy, the kids are happy, it's ridiculous," she admits.
"Yeah, it is. I've spent the last three years worried about Arizona, then the last year worried about Meredith and now, they have each other and I've got nothing to worry about," he remarks, and finishes off his beer.
"Maybe now you should worry about your girlfriend, she's getting rather cozy with Torres," Amelia teases him.
"I'm not worried about Torres, Jo doesn't play for her team," he says confidently.
"If you say so, but they look pretty cozy right now," she says nodding as she watches them get out of the car.
"Why are they here so early?" he asks jumping up and heading outside.
Meredith comes downstairs not yet dressed with wet hair, "Oh Amelia you're back already. Did I hear Alex?" She asks looking into the study to see the bar is set up.
"Yeah, Callie and Jo just pulled up and he went outside to intercept them. You should probably get upstairs and get dressed. Callie doesn't need to know that you and Arizona were just banging in the shower," Amelia teases.
"How long have you been here?" Meredith asks suddenly embarrassed.
"Not that long, I just know you and how many times have I come over for dinner here and been greeted by my brother with wet hair, seriously," she exclaims, "All this time I thought it was him and it was you."
"It helps me relax, I hate these things," she explains, heading back up the stairs.
"Then why do you keep having them?" Amelia asks playfully as she disappears.
She goes to the window to make sure that Alex is still talking with Callie and Jo, then she takes the package out of her bag and carefully opens it. She takes out the sprig of mistletoe and pulls a chair over and carefully hangs it in the doorway between the dining room and the living room. Then she quickly puts the chair back and heads into the kitchen to start pulling out the canapes that they made earlier.
"Alex, is there a reason that we can't go in the house yet?" Callie finally asks him. He's been talking about the warm Christmas weather now for almost ten minutes.
"You're early and they're just finishing up, I just thought we could hang out here for a few minutes and let them finish up," he explains.
"Whatever, I'm going in. I don't mind helping," Callie says before entering the house. "Where are they?" she asks.
"Uh, they just went back upstairs, come into the kitchen, I could use a hand," Amelia calls out from the kitchen.
"Why are they running late? Arizona left before I did," Callie points out.
"There was a lot to do around here," Amelia replies trying to hide her smile, she's having fun covering for them.
"I was hoping to see Sofia, is she upstairs?" Callie says walking towards the staircase.
"No, the kids were picked up earlier," Amelia replies quickly.
"Oh, shoot. I guess I'll have to wait and see her tomorrow," she replies.
"Hey, you're early," Arizona says entering the room and greeting her ex.
"Yeah, but Amelia says the kids are already gone," Callie says disappointed.
"I thought I told you the sitter picked them up early since the weather is nice, she took them to the park," Meredith says entering the room and greeting Callie with a light hug.
"I just glanced at the message that they were going to the park," Callie explains her mistake. "Well, we're early so how can we help?"
"I think everything's done, let's open some wine and wait for everyone to get here," Meredith suggests, taking Arizona's hand and leading her into the kitchen.
"Do you think they know?" Arizona asks shyly.
"Do you think I care?" Meredith replies playfully, pulling the blonde in and kissing her again.
"Hey your party needs some music," Amelia says entering the kitchen. "Good god, you two, keep it in your pants you have people over," she teases.
"I'll get the music, you get the wine," Meredith says winking at the blonde.
"I made a special playlist for this party," she says connecting her iPad to the sound system. Then turning around, she notices the mistletoe over the doorway. She looks at Alex, then realizes it more likely was Amelia who put it there.
A few minutes later, Arizona comes out from the kitchen with a tray of wine glasses and two bottles of wine and sets them down on the coffee table. And she pours two glasses of red and hands one to Callie and the other to Jo, then pours two glasses of white, one for her and one for Meredith. Amelia's already grabbed a bottle of San Pelligrino and Alex has helped himself to another beer.
An hour later and everyone has arrived and the party is well on its way. Once people started noticing the mistletoe, everyone loosened up and anytime someone pauses under it, they're kissed by half the people at the party.
Arizona is sitting in the dining room, chatting with Bailey and April, but her eyes track Meredith as she mingles through the room. The other woman exchange knowing glances, "Arizona?" Bailey looks over at April and laughs, "She's got it bad, I have to admit, I was hoping that she'd meet someone, but I had no idea it would be Meredith Grey," Bailey admits.
"What about Meredith?" Arizona asks, suddenly paying attention.
"Look you've barely taken your eyes off her since we sat down," April points out, "What's next for you guys?"
"What do you mean what's next?" Arizona asks. "We're together and we already live together."
"But is this serious between you two?" April asks.
"Of course it is, we're raising our kids together, you don't do that casually." Arizona points out.
"But are you going to get engaged or married", Bailey asks.
"I don't know, we haven't really talked about it," Arizona replies glancing nervously around the room. "You guys are as bad as my parents, you know that right?" She says walking away from them.
"How are you?" Meredith asks intercepting her under the mistletoe and grinning mischievously as she dips her head and kisses the blonde.
"Hmm, I'm perfect now," she says smiling into the kiss.
The room goes quiet and Meredith opens her eyes slowly and Arizona does the same. "Um, this is awkward." Arizona says softly.
"What is your problem?" She asks turning to face their friends and colleagues. "This isn't a surprise, you've all been gossiping about it for months."
"Meredith, it's fine. We haven't actually told everyone," Arizona replies taking her hand and slipping an arm around her.
"It's not fine, have you heard the things that they're saying behind your back?" She asks.
"It's not true so what does it matter?" Arizona counters.
"It matters to me, Arizona. They need to know that this matters to me, I want people to stop talking about this like it's a bad thing, this is good. We're good together," Meredith exclaims holding her hand up for people to see.
"We're happy for you Meredith, really we are, we just didn't expect it," Richard replies sheepishly.
"Honey, we don't care who you're with, just that you both are happy together," Catherine adds coming over and hugging them both.
Maggie looks over at DeLuca, she's been avoiding him all night but now she realizes that she's just making herself miserable trying so hard to avoid him. "Hey," she says going over to see him.
"How have you been?" He asks carefully.
"I'm an idiot," she replies.
"Excuse me?" he asks.
"I've been avoiding you and it's been exhausting. So I'm going to stop, avoiding you I mean," she adds.
"Okay, but what does that mean exactly?" He asks confused.
Grabbing his hand she drags him over to the mistletoe and positions him underneath it. "Kiss him or I will!" Someone yells from the back of the room.
"Kiss him! Kiss him!" everyone starts to chant, so Maggie steps in and kisses him softly. He laughs and then wraps his arms around her and kisses her back.
Jo grabs Alex's hand and drags him to the mistletoe, he smiles and then wraps his arms around her and kisses her dramatically.
Webber pulls Catherine to him and spirits her under the mistletoe and they kiss with a flourish.
Suddenly everyone is laughing and kissing, Amelia loves it, but she looks around, Owen said that he might make it, but obviously he changed his mind.
"He's outside on the porch, you should go talk to him." Callie says coming up behind the brunette.
"What?" she asks, "Who are you talking about?"
"Hunt. He's been standing on the porch for ten minutes, go out there," she says pushing her towards the door.
Slowly, Amelia makes her way to the front door and steps outside.
"Oh hey, I just got here," he says nervously.
"A little bird told me that you've been standing out here for awhile," she replies, waiting for him to respond.
"Well, I saw Meredith and Arizona kissing, so I wasn't sure what was going on. Are they together now?" He asks.
"Yeah, they are. Wild, huh?" she remarks.
"No, I can see it. They make a great couple," he says surprising her.
"Really? You're not shocked that they are together?" she asks.
"Not really, they've both been through a lot, it makes sense to me," he admits. "And that's why I think we make sense too."
"Now you think we make sense?" She asks.
"Yeah, I've been thinking about it a lot, actually and I that's why I'm here. I think we should try this again," he replies.
"I don't agree," she says sitting down on the stoop.
Curious, he sits beside her, "You don't agree?" he asks surprised.
"No again implies that we've tried once already, but we haven't really tried to have a relationship, we just hooked up a few times, which is what didn't work," she explains slipping her arm into his and resting her head on his shoulder.
"Okay, where did the mistletoe come from?" Arizona asks after everyone is gone.
"I think Amelia put it up there, I certainly didn't," Meredith replies sitting down on the couch and pulling the blonde down beside her.
"Well, a little warning next time would be good," Arizona points out.
"You should have seen your face when I kissed you in front of everyone!" Meredith exclaims, her eyes twinkling.
"I thought the whole party was going to come to a screeching halt, I was freaking out. Why did you do that?" She asks her.
"Because it needed to be done," Meredith replies. "I heard some nurses saying that they thought you were taking advantage of me and it pissed me off. Now everyone at the hospital will talk about how I kissed you in front of everyone," she says laughing.
"What about my reputation?" Arizona teases.
"Your reputation is completely intact," Meredith says slipping her arm around the blonde. "And if you want, we can start hitting up the on-call rooms, that should boost both of our reputations," she says playfully.
"Hmm, there are no children in the on-call rooms," Arizona points out, "why haven't we thought of this before?"
"Should I get more mistletoe?" Meredith teases.