"Arizona, are you almost done in there?" Callie asked, addressing the closed bathroom door as she put the finishing touches on her makeup. "It's almost nine… people are going to start arriving soon."

"Well if you didn't insist on taking pictures of Sofia trick-or-treating at every single house, we would've been home hours ago," Arizona groused, as she struggled with her hair. She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and sighed, unhappy with her reflection.

She would need hairspray. Lots and lots of industrial strength hairspray.

She opened the door a crack and blindly stuck an arm out. "Callie, could you hand me the hairspray?"

"No peeking," Callie warned as she crossed the room and handed Arizona the bottle. "And don't lay all of the blame on me for coming back late. You insisted that Mark and I wait until after your shift ended to leave. We could've met you halfway. And you were the one who went back to grab an extra blanket for the stroller. It wasn't even that cold out."

Arizona fumbled with the zipper on her costume. "I wasn't trying to keep Sofia warm, Calliope, I was trying to hide that God awful costume that she was wearing."

"She was a peanut!" Callie exclaimed, carefully rolling fish net stockings up her leg. "That's what you call her all the time." She retrieved a shoebox from its hiding place under the bed and removed the pumps inside. The heels were long and the straps were flimsy. 'True fuck me shoes,' Callie thought as she slipped them on.

"Did you even get a good look at that atrocity?" Arizona asked. "She looked more like a penis than a peanut. I don't know where Mark picked up that sad excuse for a costume, but that's the last time that he's dressing our daughter for any reason. I mean what if she ends up with a peanut allergy. What kind of parents are we that we'd dress our child in an outfit depicting something that could potentially kill her?"

As absurd as the conversation was turning, Callie couldn't help but smile when Arizona referred to Sofia as hers. They had come a long way from the tension filled atmosphere surrounding Sofia's traumatic birth. Mark and Arizona seem to have formed a tentative friendship, if not for her sake, than for their daughter's. There were times, though, where Arizona's insecurity showed through her dogged stoicism. The conversation she had with her wife at Teddy and Henry's dinner party just a few short weeks ago proved that those deep-seated fears still held true all these months later.

A knock at the apartment door startled Callie from her thoughts. "Shit," she mumbled as she crossed over to the dresser and snagged a pair of large, dangling hoop earrings. She stumbled out of the bedroom and across the living room, balancing precariously on the high-heeled shoes as she slipped the earrings on. "Arizona, comeon, someone's at the door." She twitched the short skirt of her costume into place, before reaching for the knob.

"What do you think?"

Callie spun around at the sound of a very, unfamiliar voice. Her mouth dropped open and all she could do is stare as Arizona made her way out of the bedroom. "Uh…"

"Callie?"

"Uh…"

"Are you going to answer the door?"

"Uh…"

"Surprise?"

"I don't understand," Callie hissed as she led Cristina into the kitchen.

"Understand what?" Cristina asked, annoyed that her former roommate forcibly dragged her away from the conversation that she had been having with Avery about his mother. She wouldn't stoop as low as Kepner did by attempting to befriend Katherine Avery through social networking websites, but she wasn't above chatting up her son.

"That!" Callie exclaimed, thrusting her hand in the direction where Arizona and Teddy were comparing Halloween costumes. "Lookather!"

"Uh…"

"Exactly," Callie cut in. "We agreed to surprise one another with our costumes this year, since I was stuck working a double shift last year and we didn't get to go anywhere exciting." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "We both agreed on sexy. Sexy, Cristina! Does that look sexy to you?"

"Uh…"

"Exactly!" She threw her hands up in the air. "We even gave each other hints. I told her that I wouldn't mind taking her blood, playing off both the vampire and nurse aspects of my costume. All she would tell me was that it was science fiction based. So thought maybe a sexy alien or even that warrior princess person with the sword and the round killing thing."

"Chackram."

"Bless you," Callie replied absently. "The point is, I was expecting her to dress up in something jaw dropping."

"Well it is that," Cristina confirmed, then hasten to continue when Callie's glare turned her way. "Do you know who... er …what she's supposed to be?"

"I don't know," Callie replied, "some bounty hunter or something from Star Wars. Now I haven't seen any of the new movies and I can't remember when I last watched one of the originals, but I don't ever remember a bounty hunter. There was a princess, and the Jedi who she kissed then later found out he was her brother, and Harrison Ford and a giant bear thing that growled a lot."

"Wookie," Cristina interjected, shrugging her shoulders at Callie's incredulous look. "What? I watch movies, okay? Chewbacca is a wookie, not a bear."

"Wookie, bear, whatever," Callie replied. "The point is, I think I'd be more turned on if she was dressed as that than in what she's wearing right now. How on earth could she think that I'd find her sexy in thatoutfit?"

"Callie looks pretty pissed," Teddy commented nonchalantly as she glanced over Arizona's shoulder.

"I'm sure she is," Arizona agreed wholeheartedly. "She's asked me three times already to take off my 'stupid helmet' because she's sick of hearing my 'stupid, squeaky voice'." She paused, tugging at the collar of her jumpsuit. "I'll admit that it is a bit uncomfortable under here, but it's so totally worth it."

Teddy took a long sip from her cup of punch, mostly to hide a smile as she caught Cristina trying to surreptitiously distance herself from the fuming Latina. "You know, this takes 'surprise costume' to a whole new level."

"I'm very competitive," Arizona said, sipping her punch through a straw that strategically fit through her mask. She wouldn't be able to eat anything with it on, but she was determined not to remove it until the party was over. "You should've seen her face when she first saw me."

Teddy adjusted the band holding two large, black mouse ears on her head. "Well if it's anything like the death glare that she's giving you right now, I sorry to say you're in for a rough night."

"I'm not worried," Arizona assured her. "As long as I make it through the party and she doesn't haul my ass over to Mark's to sleep on his couch, I should be fine."

"Speaking of Mark, did he really volunteer to babysit tonight?"

Arizona nodded. "I don't think he wanted to have to spend the night watching Raggedy Ann and Andy over there canoodling," she said gesturing towards Lexie and Avery in the far corner, who were doing exactly that. "And that has to be the worst couples costume ever, unless you're into incest…or you're Angelina Jolie."

"Wow, you're really snarky tonight."

"I would've expected Callie to have some knowledge of Star Wars," Arizona admitted. "Owen got it right away and even Henry was clued in after a few hints. This is going completely over my wife's head and I'm not going to embarrass myself in front of my coworkers by dropping all pretenses that the costume that you all see if supposed to be sexy by, you know, by showingthesexy."

"I have no idea what you just said," Teddy admitted.

Arizona threw her hands up in frustration and leaned in close to whisper into Teddy's ear. She pulled back, gestured wildly at herself, and leaned forward to further elaborate.

Teddy's eyebrows lifted almost comically as Arizona's artificial voice raised in pitch, and she pressed a furry gloved hand against the helmet's mouth, or where she thought a mouth would be on such an unusual creature, to quiet her friend down. She looked around, grateful that Callie was occupied across the room by Bailey, who was dressed as a clown; complete with fuzzy, multicolored wig, red nose and oversized blue shoes.

"So do you understand now?" Arizona asked, hands on hips.

"Uh…"

"Exactly!"

"Callie, would you please come out of the bathroom?" Arizona begged, speaking to the closed door.

"Not until you take off that stupid costume," Callie demanded, angrily wiping off makeup and fake blood from her face. All she wanted was to spend a few minutes alone with her wife, maybe sneak into their bedroom when nobody was looking. But there would be no 'romantic endeavors' on this night, not when Arizona blatantly lied to her about her costume and embarrassed her in front of their friends. "I can't believe you!"

"C'mon, Calliope, I've already apologized a dozen times since the party ended."

"We both agreed on sexy, Arizona," Callie snapped. "Sexy! Not freakish and nerdy." Just then the lights went out and Callie cursed and slapped at the light switch in frustration. "Oh for the love of… Arizona, the power's out!" When she received no answer, Callie opened the bathroom door. "Arizona?" She edged out of the bathroom, throwing her hands out in front of her as she carefully made her way across the room. "Arizona? Where are you?" The darkness was so complete, Callie could hardly see in front of her. "Arizona, this isn't funny… where did you go?"

She made it out of the bedroom and into the living room area and nearly jumped out of her skin when something crashed onto the floor just to her left. "Jesus… Arizona is that you?" Callie felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up in anticipation as another noise, this one a muted footfall directly behind her. She spun around, her hands automatically closing into fists, as she addressed the dark room. "Who's there?"

"Someone who loves you," came a soft whisper directly into her ear.

Callie's entire frame slumped in relief at the familiar voice. "Arizona what on earth are you doing? Did you turn the lights off?"

Arizona nodded, a motion that Callie couldn't catch in the darkness. "I wanted to surprise you."

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"No not that," Arizona said, trailing a bare finger up Callie's arm. "I wanted to surprise you with the costume. Perhaps, I should've done a little digging to see if you ever saw the films, before coming up with the idea."

"I did," Callie countered, unsuccessful in her attempt to capture her wife's hand in the dark. "I was eight when it came out… and I caught bits and pieces of the series on cable throughout the years. I didn't retain enough knowledge to be able to tell you character names or plot points. All I know is that the good guys win in the ednd and that Darth Vader guy is bad news."

"We need to expand your movie horizons, honey." Arizona found Callie's arm and gently led her across the room, seemingly unaffected by the darkness. "You know, I put a lot of effort into this costume."

Callie snorted in disagreement.

"No really," the blonde insisted. "I know that it didn't look that way, but my costume was special."

"I'll say."

Arizona sighed, before gently pushing Callie down to sit on the loveseat. "I wanted this to be a surprise. A surprise within a surprise."

"A what?"

"I surprised you good with the first part," Arizona went on. "I did dress up as an Ubese bounty hunter tonight, and I'll admit that it wasn't the most attractive costume." She paused. "But I didn't dress up as any old Ubese bounty hunter. I was the bounty hunter known as Boushh."

Callie was getting a little fed up with this impromptu lesson on Star Wars character geneology. "And this is relevant how? And why are the lights still off?"

"Patience," Arizona urged. "In the third movie, TheRevengeoftheJedi, Princess Leia poses as Boushh when she attempts to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt."

"That thing that looks like a pile of shi—"

"Callie!"

"He does!"

"Fine," Arizona agreed. "Anyway, the costume I wore isn't just an Ubese bounty hunter."

"It's not?" Callie asked, drawing the words out slowly.

"No," Arizona replied brightly. "I was Princess Leia in an Ubese bounty hunter disguise."

"Uh…"

"Surprise?"

"Uh…"

"But that's not all," Arizona continued on. "If you remember the movie, then you'd know that Princess Leia is caught during the rescue attempt and that Jabba makes her his slave." She waited, hoping that her description of the scene had sparked some recognition in her wife's memory.

"And…"

Clearly, it hadn't. "Jabba forces Leia to wear an outfit…one might consider it a "sexy" outfit."

"Yeah?"

"Mhmm," Arizona confirmed, sliding to stand next to where Callie is sitting. She reached out and once again took her wife's hand. "I had a thing for Princess Leia, way back when," she confessed, drawing Callie's hand up her bare thigh. She smiled at Callie's sudden intake of breath. "I cut out a picture of her from a magazine and kept it in my nightstand, long before I ever came out to my parents. I used to take it out at night and imagine…"

Callie swallowed hard, as Arizona moved their joined hands higher. "Imagine what?"

Arizona smiled. "I imagined what it would feel like to touch her while she wore this," she explained, pressing Callie's palm against the cool metal of the bikini top that she had on.

Callie surged forward, pressing her hand against Arizona's breast in an effort to make more contact, but the blonde backed away. "Arizona…"

"It's really a shame," Arizona went on, "that you don't seem to recall that scene. I really don't do the costume justice."

"Somehow I doubt that," Callie muttered under her breath.

"There's just something about the way Carrie Fisher moved while wearing it."

"Come back here," Callie pouted.

"Do you think Mark's a Star Wars fan?"

Callie's eyes widened at the very thought. She scrambled to her feet and narrowly missed stubbing her toe on the coffee table as she stumbled to the apartment door. She blinked at the sudden rush of light from the hallway, before barging into Mark's apartment across the way.

"Don't get up," she said as she marched past the couch, bypassing his collection of DVDs, as she entered the bedroom.

"What are you doing?" Mark called after her from his spot in front of the television, keeping his voice down as to not wake the baby.

Callie made a beeline for his closet. She opened the door and rooted around before pulling out a shoebox. She opened the lid and dumped the contents onto his bed, smirking when she caught a glimpse of the DVD that she was looking for. Only Mark would keep his collection of porn in plain view on a shelf in the living room and hide the few science fiction movies that he owned in a box in the back of his closet.

She grabbed the DVD that came for and popped back into the living room, stopping short in front of the oversized LCD screen. "Really?"

"What?" Mark asked, his tone defensive. "It's tradition."

Callie rolled her eyes as Snoopy flew his doghouse across the screen. "I didn't know that you still watched cartoons."

"Hey," Mark pointed an accusatory finger at her, "there's nothing wrong with watching holiday classics, animated or not."

"Yeah, ok," Callie agreed as she popped the movie in, despite his whining protest at missing the "best part". She quickly skipped past the opening scenes until finding the one Arizona had described.

Same terribly drab jumpsuit uniform.

Same hideous helmet.

Same annoying voice.

Woah!

"Damn, Leia's hot," Mark commented from the couch. "She could always get my 'force' going, if you know what I mean."

She was hot, Callie silently agreed with both Mark and Arizona's assessment of the princess. And that outfit…

Bare legs.

Thong covered by long strips of sheer fabric.

Metal bikini top.

"Oh my God!" Callie exclaimed, as the proverbial lightbulb went off in her head.

"What?" Mark wondered absently, as he watched Leia slink across the screen. He turned his head, but Callie was already gone. He snatched the remote control from where she left it on the table and pointed it at the DVD player. His finger hovered over the power button for a long moment, before sliding down to hit rewind. "The Great Pumpkin will still be as elusive next year," he reasoned with himself as the sci-fi movie's opening credits began to play.

Callie burst into the apartment and made a beeline for the closed bedroom door, not caring one bit the power had been restored. She pushed open the door and nearly fell into the room at the sight that greeted her. Arizona lay spread out on the bed, similar to the way Leia was forced to sit beside Jabba the Hutt. The costume she wore hugged her curves and left little to the imagination. It made sense now, Callie surmised, why her somewhat shy wife wouldn't want to wear such a revealing costume in front of their colleagues. The whole evening had been an elaborate setup and she had played right into Arizona's hands.

The blonde, whose hair was twisted into twin buns (the only deviation from the scene in the movie), lifted her hand in invitation. In her palm rested a length of chain that connected to a padded collar fastened loosely around her neck.

Oh. My.

"Surprised?"

"Uh…"

"Awesome!"

(Costume pics described in this fic can be found at my livejournal account. It's the same name as this account name. Google it and you'll come up with the link (that they won't let me post here) ) Or you came send me a private message and I'll send you the direct link.