Just a little one shot because revision is driving me insane. It's based on promo photos for 12x16! I hope you like it! Also for readers of my other fic, I think I will be continuing with it so I will update that as soon as possible :)
For Penny Blake, it was just another boring day at the hospital. Nothing much surgical-wise had come in and even though Amelia Shepherd had reluctantly agreed to train her, there was still doubt in Penny's mind that this would truly mean she would be accepted at the hospital. When she first accepted the job, new in her relationship with Callie, she had no idea it would entail this much hassle. At times, she wanted to quit, especially when Grey was doing her best to make Penny's own life a living hell. Moving to Seattle Grace changed Penny's life forever. It even changed her relationship with Callie and after a brief split the two had reconciled, although now Penny had switched to Amelia's service, things were hardly different in terms of her relationship with Callie.
Penny found herself in the pit that day, just dealing with people with minor problems and nothing major to deal with. The most exciting patient so far was suffering, with an ear infection and had a scream so loud you could probably hear it on the other side of the hospital. Now the pit was looking pretty empty and there seemed to be no new patients coming in so Penny decided to join Stephanie and Ben who were also working in the pit that day.
"I can't believe you stole my mentor" Stephanie grumbled at Penny, probably more upset that she was put on Peds more than anything else.
"She offered!" Penny protested. "After everything that's happened between us, do I really want to piss her off any more by refusing to let her teach me"
"Point taken, although I wish Bailey would put me on something better than Peds" Stephanie sighed. "It's so…chirpy" she pulled a face which made Penny laugh.
"I can't imagine Alex Karev being particularly chirpy so maybe it won't be nearly as bad" Penny laughed.
"It is when Robbins joins in on the cases" Stephanie rolled her eyes. "She's so…"
"Enthusiastic?" Penny finished her sentence for her. Every time Arizona's name was mentioned, she couldn't help feeling a little jealous of her. Sure she had Callie, but the friendship between the ex's seemed to be particularly strong. It was probably a good thing for Sofia's sake, except Sofia hated Penny and Penny could do nothing right in her eyes. "I see her a lot…outside the hospital"
"You do?" Stephanie raised her eyebrows.
"Sofia" Penny answered. "Whenever she comes around to drop or pick Sofia up, Callie always invites her in for a chat" Penny sighed. "Do you think that's weird?"
"What two people who are trying to keep it civil for their child?" Stephanie asked. "No, not really"
Penny slumped back in her chair, knowing that Stephanie would never truly understand how she felt. No matter how hard she tried with Callie, she always felt as though she could never be better than Arizona. It shouldn't matter, but when the two of them were laughing over coffee, reminiscing of old times with their daughter grinning at the scene and loving every second, Penny couldn't help feeling a little left out.
She knew Sofia wasn't her biggest fan, no matter how hard Penny tried with her. She let her watch frozen a million times, let her eat whatever she wanted when Callie wasn't around to be strict but nothing changed how that little girl felt about her. She'd overheard Sofia voicing her opinions one night to Callie, which hurt a lot more than what it should have. Now Sofia had resorted to not speaking to Penny at all, not being thrilled at all to find out her mom was dating Penny again.
There was a commotion at the door and Penny knew someone was about to come in and seek treatment. At the same time, Stephanie leapt to her feet.
"I need this" Penny responded. "If I sit and dwell at how poor my life is at the moment I'll end up in psych"
"How can life be poor with an amazing mentor?" Stephanie questioned before holding her head back. "You owe me" she mumbled, slumping back down into the chair.
Penny flashed her a quick smile before running over to the door. She could hear a frantic woman and was hoping this would turn out to be something really big. Finally said woman came into view, a child in her arms who had a nasty wound on her head and blood trickling down her face. Penny's face dropped when she saw the child. Her bad day just got worse as it occurred to her that the child in the frantic woman's arms happened to be Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres.
This cannot be happening, a voice was screaming inside Penny's head as Sofia was immediately thrust into her own arms. Even though in pain, with blood streaming down her face, Sofia still fought and wriggled to be out of Penny's arms. Penny was stronger and managed to restrain the squirming child before carrying her over to the nearest empty bed. The frantic woman had since calmed down and only now Penny realised she was the babysitter Callie and Arizona had agreed on whenever they had Sofia and were in work.
"You're Dr Torres's girlfriend, aren't you?" the babysitter questioned, remembering who Penny was. Penny had only seen her a couple of times before that, but nodded and said she was. Penny swore she heard Sofia exhale when she answered.
"Sofia, let me look at your head please" Penny asked Sofia, who had her head turned away from Penny. She was looking at the babysitter, probably whispering something because the babysitter looked as though she was trying to understand what Sofia was saying.
"Mommy" Sofia mumbled a bit louder at the babysitter. "Mommy can do it"
"I'm a doctor too Sofia" Penny exhaled, trying to force the little girl to lie back on the bed but she let out a scream that caused everyone in the pit to look their way. Penny rolled her eyes as her cheeks flushed red. Stephanie came over beside them.
"What happened?" she asked, not realising who the child was, but probably just hoping that the case was bigger than expected. "Sofia" she caught on, examining the little girl's head wound from afar. "What happened?" she questioned the babysitter.
"Actually" Penny interrupted, glaring at Stephanie. "I was just about to get to that"
"Mommy" Sofia whimpered, only turning around so she could see Stephanie. Her big brown eyes were filled with tears that were ready to fall at any moment.
"Have you paged Torres?" Stephanie asked.
"No not yet, I need to examine her first" Penny snapped back. Stephanie held her hands up and grabbed her pager, ready to page Torres before there was another commotion at the door. She placed her pager back in her pocket and ran over to the door. Sofia began to turn towards the babysitter again.
"Sofia, the doctor has to look at your face" the babysitter smiled trying to help Penny out because the little girl was being uncooperative.
"Mommy" She whimpered a little louder.
"She's on her way" Penny told her a little white lie, hoping to examine her before she paged Callie. This seemed to work and Sofia turned her way, wearing the same blank expression she always seemed to wear in Penny's presence.
"That's a nasty cut" Penny added softly, trying to make Sofia see that she could help. "How did you do it?" she directed at Sofia who just stared straight ahead. Penny shook her head a little, feeling foolish for thinking that Sofia would even acknowledge her. "How did she do it?" she directed at the babysitter, hoping she would be more informative than the patient.
"She tripped on the rug at Dr Torres's house and banged her head on the table. She just lay there for a while" the babysitter filled Penny in. "I got so scared I scooped her up and brought her straight here"
"Well although it's deep, it doesn't give me much cause for concern although maybe I should page neuro to check her out"
"And mommy and mama too" Sofia added quietly.
"Right" Penny confirmed walking away from the scene. She paged Amelia first and then Callie, just stating that it was non-emergent but she should make her way to the pit when she could. And then she made her way over to where Stephanie was, who was working on a different patient.
"Please take Sofia off my hands"
"You wanted the case" Stephanie smiled. "She's a sweet kid"
"She hates me" Penny sighed. "Like I'm the evil stepmother"
"She's six" Stephanie replied. "All I wanted when I was six was my mom and dad to get back together. I despised my dad's new girlfriend"
"How did that end up?" Penny asked.
"She couldn't handle the hate. He got a new girlfriend some years later who I liked"
"I'm not sure if this is helping or not" Penny sighed, glancing over at where the babysitter was stroking Sofia's hair.
"Go" Stephanie told her as Amelia entered the room and made her way over to Penny.
"You paged" Amelia muttered. Penny pointed at Sofia's beside and Amelia quickly made her way over. "You should have paged me quicker" she lost her temper quickly as she examined Sofia.
"It's non-emergent"
"It's Callie and Arizona's kid, don't you think I would have rushed over sooner regardless" she shook her head in disbelief. Sofia had brightened up after seeing Amelia. Penny filled Amelia in on the accident as Amelia conducted a quick neuro exam.
"Silly girl" she teased Sofia once she heard the story from Blake. "I always tell you and Zola to be careful running around and I was right" she laughed. "But you are fine, just a very nasty cut but I'm sure your mom will be more than happy to fix you up with some ice-cream later" she smiled ruffling the top of Sofia's hair. Callie came into the pit, her eyes widening when she saw her own daughter lying in the hospital bed.
"What happened?" she raised her voice as she rushed to her daughter's bedside.
"Mommy" Sofia beamed as Callie wrapped her arms around her.
"She had a fall but she's fine" Penny stressed.
"Why didn't you page me as an emergency" Callie raised her voice as she let go of Sofia.
"Callie it was non-emergent" Penny gasped. "She had a cut on her head"
"Oh because something that doesn't look bad can't turn out to be something bigger?" Callie questioned. "I would have been here instantly" she snapped taking out her pager. "Where's Arizona?"
A look of shock came over Penny's face as she realised she'd forgotten to page the blonde woman at all. Callie glanced at her.
"You have got to be kidding me" she yelled, paging Arizona to the pit as though it was an emergency. "You forgot to page her MOTHER"
"I'm so sorry" Penny trembled. "I was just so caught up in trying to examine her and paging Amelia"
"Yet you had plenty of time to chat with Edwards when I entered the room" Amelia interrupted. Callie's eyes widened.
"I spoke for about two seconds" Penny replied sounding exasperated. "I forgot to page Arizona but it's non-emergent, she is fine"
"That is so besides the point" Callie glared at her girlfriend. "Sofia is our child, even if she came in here with just a little cut you should page us immediately and tell us to come straight away"
Arizona Robbins could be heard bursting through the door, her eyes quickly scanning the room for Callie so she could see why she was paged. She raced over to Sofia's bedside.
"What the hell happened?" she questioned looking around at the babysitter, Callie, Amelia and lastly Penny.
"She had a fall, she's fine" Penny stressed, already feeling a little pushed out of the situation as Callie and Arizona both hugged Sofia close together. They looked like a perfect little family. Sofia opened her eyes and smiled straight ahead at Penny.
"I asked for my mama ages ago" the little girl revealed.
Amelia's pager sounded and she quickly left the room. Arizona looked at her daughter.
"How long has she been here?" she immediately turned to Callie. "You only just thought to page me now?" she screwed her face up.
"I paged you as soon as I got here" Callie replied back. "So don't"
"So why has she been asking for me then Callie? Why have I been just dawdling around in Peds when my daughter was lying in the hospital with a nasty wound on her head?" Arizona lost her temper.
"I am the wrong person you need to be asking that" Callie responded. "Penny didn't think that it was important enough to page me for an emergency immediately…or to even page you at all"
"WHAT!" Arizona stood up and immediately faced Penny who looked smaller than Arizona, even though she was taller.
"It was non-emergent" Penny stressed again for the third time, although she was sounding a little bit like a broken record at this point. It didn't seem to calm Arizona down any more though as she yelled at Penny, causing the whole room to look their way. Callie held on to Sofia the whole time but by the time Arizona was finished yelling, it looked like Penny was the one who needed holding. Tears were filling her eyes faster each second although Penny vowed there was no way she would cry in front of any of them. Finally, Callie interrupted, gently placing her hands on Arizona's arms to make her back down. It made Penny feel sick.
"Let's just focus on Sofia, okay" she gazed at Arizona who after shooting Penny one last glare, sat down beside Sofia's bedside. Callie didn't even look in Penny's direction. Knowing she was about to cry but not wanting to embarrass herself any further, Penny made a swift exit from the scene.
"She is unbelievable Callie" Arizona hissed. "I am Sofia's mother too"
"I know I know" Callie bit her lip. "I paged you straight away"
"She did mama" Sofia confirmed.
"Well you look as though you're feeling a lot better" Arizona grinned down at her baby. "You did the right thing bringing her here" she smiled at the babysitter. "But you don't have to wait around now, I'm done for the day so I can take her home" she smiled. The babysitter nodded and left once she was paid for the day.
"Amelia says I can have ice cream" Sofia replied with a serious look on her face. "She's a doctor so I must need it" she added. Callie and Arizona grinned at one another.
"Is that so?" Callie smiled.
"I'm sure we have some in the freezer" Arizona smiled, stroking her daughter's hair.
"You always were the good cop" Callie smiled, realising how little she'd seen Arizona interact with their daughter in their time apart.
"You always were the bad cop" Arizona smiled back. "But we can have pizza for dinner, ice-cream for desert and then we can watch tangled until bed time" she glanced down at Sofia. "How does that sound?"
"Unhealthy" Callie interrupted, teasing Arizona.
"Perfect mama" Sofia beamed.
"Maybe I shouldn't have talked to your girlfriend like that before" Arizona bit her lip. "I'm sorry"
"You only said what I was thinking" Callie sighed. "I know she probably wasn't thinking"
"Still it's no excuse Callie" Arizona responded. "She's my daughter just as much as she is yours and Mark's"
"Oh, I know that" Callie smiled. "You've got a pretty awesome mama, haven't you Sof" Callie directed at her daughter, although her eyes never left Arizona's. Having something that united them together like this was forcing them to spend some time together as an actual family, compared keeping things friendly and coming in for a brief chat. Arizona's big blue eye's gazed back at Callie's. Her feelings for Callie hadn't changed a bit, even though two years had passed.
"She's super awesome" Sofia confirmed, making Callie and Arizona laugh. Finally, they broke off eye contact with one another.
"Well" Callie stood up. "I should go and find Penny" she replied, knowing that they had things to talk about. Arizona frowned a little, which Callie picked up on.
"Mommy please come and watch tangled with me and mama" Sofia pleaded. "My head is hurt" she pouted.
"I'm sure mama wants you all to herself munchkin" Callie replied, realising that she actually wanted to spend the night with her ex-wife and their child.
"PLEASE mama" Sofia turned to Arizona now, knowing that Arizona couldn't ever say no to her.
"I don't mind Callie" she smiled. "It's just pizza and a film" she laughed.
"Okay then" Callie smiled, her heart rising a little. "It's just pizza and a film" she muttered quietly.