Disclaimer: All characters are property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: A short Christmas fic sequel to The Long Road Home. I wrote this rather quickly and did not go back over it so please forgive any errors. Not my favorite work that I've done but fluff is always good.
This Christmas Eve the rain in Seattle was dripping from the sky like a leaky faucet. If only Mother Nature would cool the temperature by a few more degrees the rain would turn to snow and give Seattlites what they wanted most for Christmas, a white Christmas.
In lieu of a white Christmas, the city went overboard on Christmas decorations. Every street lamp was covered in lights and decorated with wreaths. Decorated Christmas trees were on display all over town. Stores created winter wonderlands with their store displays. And even the residents went all out with their own houses. One house, at the end of West 5th Street in Queen Anne, would be considered tacky by a normal person's standards but to those that live in the house it was anything but tacky. Arizona Robbins Torres encouraged her children's creativity and allowed them to help decorate the house. What resulted was a hodgepodge of lights, a family of lighted snowmen, a herd of deer and three inflatable creatures. To anyone else the inflatable decorations were what pushed the house over the edge but to the Torres family they were a representation of their children. Jamie, the eldest at 10 years old chose a respectable Santa wearing Hawaiian board shorts with a surfboard; Will, the middle child at 5 years old, picked Spongebob Squarepants in a Christmas hat; and Sarah the youngest at 3 years old chose Minnie Mouse.
Inside the large, white house with the tacky decorations, the three children could be found that Christmas Eve huddled around the kitchen table making a gingerbread house. The three children were working together pretty well with few arguments until Sarah decided she wanted to eat the candy instead of build with it.
"Mama! Sarah is ruining it!" Will cried.
Callie walked over to the table just in time to see Sarah pluck a gumdrop from the roof and put it in her mouth. Sarah reminded Callie more and more daily of Arizona. Even though Arizona might not be biologically related to any of the children you wouldn't know it by the way they all took after her, especially their youngest.
"Sarah," Callie said as she picked up the girl. "Why don't you come help me decorate the cookies for Santa while we let your brothers finish the house."
Callie placed Sarah on the counter and put a plate of cookies next to her. "These are for Santa, so no eating them, okay? Now use this frosting and these candies. Make them look really pretty for Santa." Callie gave her daughter a kiss and went about finishing her preparations for tomorrow's feast. She wanted to have everything prepared tonight so that she didn't have to spend the next day slaving away in the kitchen and could actually enjoy being with her family as they opened gifts and celebrated.
Callie was working on preparing the potatoes when a tiny voice interrupted her work.
"Mama?" The voice sounded.
Callie looked up to see Jamie standing beside her, "Yes, Jamie? You boys all finished."
Jamie nodded, "When's Mom going to get home? It's getting late and she promised she'd read us the Christmas story before bed."
Callie looked at her watch. She knew Arizona should have been home an hour ago but didn't want to let Jamie know that she was already late. "She'll be home soon, mijo. She's busy taking care of the sick kids at work but she will be here before bedtime."
Jamie smiled and nodded. "Can we go watch a Christmas cartoon? The Grinch?"
"Sure, take Sarah with you and be nice to her."
"Yes, Mama." Jamie replied dutifully as he took Sarah's hand and led her and Will out to the living room.
Callie tried to be patient waiting for Arizona to get home. She knows how it is working in a hospital. Surgeries come up and they get delayed getting home but Arizona normally calls if she's going to be late. Callie decided that she'd rather be considered overbearing and called to check in. She dialed Arizona's cell phone number and listened to it ring and ring with no answer. She then tried paging her and after five minutes with no reply Callie had to take drastic measures. She called Mark, who was also working on Christmas Eve.
"Torres? To what do I owe the pleasure on Christmas Eve?" Mark answered his phone, not even bothering with a hello.
Callie sighed, "Have you seen Arizona lately? She was supposed to be home over an hour ago."
"She was in surgery the last I saw her. It's pretty slow right now so I'll track her down for you."
"Thanks Mark," Callie sighed with relief, thankful to have such a great best friend. "Just have her call me, please."
"No problem. I'll see you for dinner tomorrow. We'll be over around 3, okay?" Mark asked, wanting to make sure his invitation to Christmas dinner still stood. Last week, during an intense game of flag football at his house there was an incident which almost left Jamie in a cast and made him persona non grata in the Torres household.
"Yeah, Mark. Three sounds good. See you then." Callie said as she hung up the phone.
Callie was in the kid's bathroom where she was just finishing up with nightly bath time when the phone finally rang. She corralled all three kids were now squeaky clean and in their special Christmas pajamas into the living room where they were watching The Santa Clause. She was out of breath trying to get the kids settled and trying to get to the phone before Arizona hung up.
"Arizona? Where are you?" Callie said, slightly angry into the phone. She was upset that her wife wasn't home yet.
Arizona was hesitant in answering, "Hey. I'm so so sorry. I got caught up in surgery. This one little girl decided to play Santa and actually jump off of her roof."
Callie sighed, knowing that Arizona was having a bad night. "When are you going to be home?"
"Calliope," Arizona started but was instantly cut off by her wife.
"Don't you dare say it Arizona. Your children are waiting for you to read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas to them."
"Calliope," Arizona attempted to start again. "This girl is really touch and go. I can't leave.
Callie was more than upset. How was she going to tell the kids? "What am I supposed to tell them? Jamie has already asked me where you are at twice."
"Just read the story to them. They'll be asleep before you know it because they haven't slept all week due to all the sugar. And I'll be there when they wake up." Arizona reasoned, more upset with herself than with Callie and her attitude at the moment.
"They will notice. And how do you expect to be home when they wake up? You know Jamie will be up by 6 if not earlier. If you can be home by 6 then why do you even need to stay the night?" Callie tried all the guilt tricks she could to get Arizona to come home.
Arizona was near tears. Christmas was her favorite holiday and it wasn't about the presents. It was about seeing her children as they put out cookies for Santa. Watching them fall asleep with smiles on their faces. Waking up in the middle of the night to put out their gifts and barely falling back asleep by the time the kids were jumping on the bed to wake up their parents. It was about watching her children's eyes light up when they open the toys and play with each other even at a ridiculous hour in the morning. "I just will, Calliope. I'll be there when they wake up. I promise."
"Do you want to talk to them?" Callie said with shortness in her words.
Arizona sighed, "No. That will just make things worse."
"Fine. Go be with your tiny humans while I tell our tiny humans that you won't be coming home tonight." Callie hung up the phone without even saying I love you which is something the couple never did.
Callie returned to the living room to find her three children trying not to fall asleep while watching Christmas movies. She picked up sleepy Sarah in her arms and whispered for the boys to follow her. They were half awake so they didn't even try to fight bedtime. Once Sarah was tucked in her bed, Callie went to put the boys to bed in their room.
Will went straight to his bed and curled up with his favorite teddy bear. By this point, Jamie had fully woken up and realized that he had not gotten his story from his Mom.
Jamie sat on the edge of his bed. "Mama, where is Mom? She promised!"
"I know she did," Callie sat down next to her eldest son and stroked his thick brown hair. "She has a very sick girl at the hospital that she can't leave alone tonight. How about I read it to you?"
"No, I want Mom to do it!" Jamie started to cry. "Why does Mom choose the kids at the hospital over us?"
Callie's heart broke over her son's statement. She knows that he doesn't mean it. He is just upset that his promise was broken. She would never have the heart to tell Arizona exactly what he said. "Oh mijo, do you remember when you were very sick?"
Jamie's tears continued to flow and he nodded into his Mama's side.
"Do you remember how Mom made you better? How she was always with you? She never left your side until you got better. Now she has to be there for this little girl who needs her help to get better. Don't you want this little girl to be able to go home with her parents?"
"I know Mom has a very important job," Jamie's tears began to subside. "I just wish she was here with us tonight. I know how much she loves Christmas. She's going to be very sad tomorrow."
"We'll have to cheer her up then," Callie said as she kissed his head.
Jamie looked up at Callie with a smile, "I know how we can make her feel better."
Across town at Seattle Grace – Mercy West, Dr. Arizona Robbins' night just got worse. She had a kid barely hanging on and now her wife and probably her kids were mad at her. But most of all, she was mad at herself for not being able to do it all.
After hanging up the phone with Callie, Arizona went to her office, turned off the lights and laid on the couch trying to sleep. Sleep couldn't find Arizona, though. Her mind couldn't stop thinking about how she should be reading her kids a story goodnight.
She heard a faint knock on the door but didn't answer. She didn't want to deal with anyone else unless she had to. The knock got louder.
"Robbins, I know you're in there." A gruff voice sounded through the door.
Arizona refused to get off the couch. "Go away Mark. I want to be alone."
Mark didn't wait for an invitation and pushed the door open. "You shouldn't be alone on Christmas Eve. Callie called. She sounded upset but she made me promise that I'd take you out for a doughnut."
Arizona's lips curled slightly. Even after being so angry with her over the phone, Callie still wanted to cheer up the blonde surgeon. "I'm okay Mark. I'm just going to take a nap."
"I promised her and I'm going to make good on that. So on your feet, Blondie."
Arizona sighed and stood up, knowing that arguing with Mark when he made Callie a promise was a losing battle. "You're paying."
Arizona and Mark never made it to get the doughnut. Halfway to the cafeteria Arizona's pager blared and she had to go check on her patient. Arizona was happy that it was only a small hiccup that caused her to be paged and nothing that required surgery or life saving measures. She really didn't have the energy for that. She was exhausted after a long day at work, her fight with Callie and her general unhappiness with the situation. All she wanted to do was go back to her office and finally get her nap.
She unlocked her office door and pushed it open without even paying attention to what she was doing. She didn't even turn on the light but she noticed that the office was glowing. She picked her eyes up off of her feet and looked around. Christmas lights outlined her desk. A small tree sat in the corner. Soft Christmas music hummed throughout the room. And laying on the couch, barely awake were her three children, clad in the red and white striped pajamas. She felt tears form in her eyes when she felt familiar hands wrap around her waist.
"Since you couldn't come home, Jamie thought we should bring Christmas to you." Callie whispered in Arizona's ear as Arizona tried to stop the tears from overfilling her eyes.
Jamie woke up from his half slumber and noticed his Mom standing in the room. He gently extracted himself from his sister's embrace and ran to embrace her leg. "Merry Christmas, Mom."
Arizona crouched down to Jamie's level. "Merry Christmas baby. Thank you for my Christmas present. I missed you today."
Jamie hugged his mother tightly, "I missed you too. We made a gingerbread house and watched the Grinch!"
"Sounds like a lot of fun, Jam."
"Would you read to us now?" Jamie asked as he pulled Arizona toward the couch.
Arizona looked at her two other sleeping children, "Should we wake them up, Jamie? You're the big brother. What do you think?"
Jamie nodded, "Yes. It's not Christmas until you read the story."
"Okay," Arizona said as she gently lifted Sarah up and put her on her lap. Callie picked up Will and sat next to Arizona. The two younger children were still groggy but were awake.
Jamie went to get the book from his Mama's bag and curled up next to Arizona, "Here you go. Start at the beginning and don't skip anything."
Arizona began, "Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house…"
Jamie listened intently as Arizona read the book. Jamie always loved when his Mom read to him. The two formed a bond over books when Arizona first introduced him to the Harry Potter books when he was sick with cancer. However, by the end of the story, Jamie couldn't fight the sleep any longer. He was out like a light by the time Arizona got to the end.
"…And to all a good night." Arizona finished as she glanced at her three sleeping children.
The two adults managed to slip out from under the children and move out into the hallway so they could talk without fear of waking them up. As soon as they hit the bright lights of the hallway Arizona pulled Callie into a huge hug.
"Thank you," Arizona whispered.
Callie ran her hands through Arizona's silky blonde hair, "Anytime."
"Not that I didn't love that you brought them here. But how do you plan on getting them home in their beds. They're fast asleep and I'm sure you already woke them up once just to get them here." Arizona said as she pulled out of the hug.
"I hadn't thought of that, actually. They're so tired they probably won't even notice. I'll get Mark to help carry Jamie to the car and we can handle the other two."
Arizona slumped into Callie's embrace. "I wish I could come home with you."
"You still think you'll be home before six?" Callie asked hopefully.
Arizona nodded enthusiastically. "Karev comes in at 4 so I will be out of here as soon as I see his face."
Callie started nipping at Arizona's ear. "I better get the kids home, but I really want to drag you into an on-call room. You know we have our own special Christmas Eve traditions."
Arizona moaned at the feeling of Callie's lips on her ear. "Maybe if you're really good, you'll get a special wake up call this morning."
Callie reluctantly pulled away from Arizona and went back into the office. With Mark carrying Jamie, Callie picked up Will and Arizona carried Sarah.
Once all the kids were strapped in Arizona met Callie at the drivers' side door. "Merry Christmas, Calliope."
Callie pulled Arizona into a steamy kiss before letting her go. "Merry Christmas, Arizona."