Title: Choices

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one year of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!

Series: Thing!verse (or, pre-Thing!verse?)

Summary: Callie and Arizona make a very important decision. [Late Summer 2012]

Author's Note: Working on a couple longer fics, which is why I've been a little absent. Here's just a little silly thing to tide you over. Beta'd by the wonderful, snarky roughian. Thanks, you weirdy reindeer.

"Whatcha looking at?"

"Sperm."

Teddy does a double take and plops down beside Arizona on the couch in the attendings lounge.

"Um, what? Thought that wasn't your thing," she teases.

Arizona raises her eyes from the stack of papers on the coffee table for just a moment and gives her a distracted smile.

"Donors."

"Wait, are you guys..."

"Trying to get pregnant. But there are so many choices, and it feels so mean to just pick the cute ones, but who doesn't want a cute baby? And isn't this kind of eugenic? It feels weird. And how on earth are we going to pick just one? This is the stack after Callie narrowed it down, and-"

Teddy extends a hand and places it warmly on Arizona's arm, lowering it from its excited waving about before the manila folder falls from her grip.

"Arizona, take a deep breath. You are freaking out. Back up. Please tell me about your major life changes in a less rambling way."

Arizona takes that breath, and then offers a tentative grin.

"Thanks. Needed that."

"I know."

Arizona bites her lip and admits: "Callie and I are having a baby."

Teddy smiles, squeezing her arm.

"If one of the moms doesn't give herself an aneurysm first," Teddy ribs gently. "Congratulations."

Arizona lets out a nervous laugh and flops back against the couch.

"This is kinda big, Arizona. How are you feeling? Besides overwhelmed."

"Overwhelmed; that's the perfect word for it. She wants this. She wants this so badly. And I want it, too. At first, I thought just for her, because she wanted it."

"And now?"

"I've had a few dreams."

"Dreams?"

"About a baby. A family. It's pretty great. Calliope, me, and a tiny little baby that looks just like her. Which, brings me back to these."

Teddy grins at the peds surgeon, who has come so very far since she met her, all for the love of one special woman.

"What about these?"

"It's like the Aryan boy wonder collection!" Arizona huffs, dropping the one in her hand with an annoyed plop. "I told her it was silly; her beautiful features are crazy dominant, and so it's silly to try to have a baby that-"

"Looks like it could be yours."

"Yeah! I mean, we're not fooling anybody."

"It's sweet, Arizona."

Arizona groans. "It just makes this thing more weird."

"Arizona. This is the least stressful part of having a baby. Look: you could draw a folder out of that stack at random, and it wouldn't matter. You're not going to make the wrong choice. They don't sell bad sperm! You can fall in love with bad sperm, settle for bad sperm because your biological clock is ticking, accidentally get knocked up by bad sperm after too much tequila, all of that you can do. You cannot pay for bad sperm."

"I guess you're right."

"Besides, she's pushing your child out of her body; if she wants to limit the sperm donor pool to blue-eyed blonds? Let her."

Arizona snorts, and a few unprofessional giggles erupt from Teddy as well.

"Ladies," Bailey interrupts, hands on her hips, eyebrow raised, as she stands in the doorway. "Care to share with the class?"

"No worries, Dr. Bailey," Arizona says brightly, gathering her stack into her arms and rising. She brushes past Miranda. "Just talking about sperm."

Bailey sputters a little in shock as Arizona disappears down the hallway. Teddy laughs a little at her expense and then clarifies a little.

"Sperm donors."

Bailey's confusion lasts for another second, before her expression completely softens.

"Yeah? Those two finally going to have sickeningly cute babies?"

"Seems so."

"Honey, I'm home," Arizona calls playfully, still balancing her stack of folders as she pushes into the apartment.

"Hey," Callie greets warmly, meeting her at the door with a kiss. She glances down at the armful of their possible futures. "Did you make a decision?"

Arizona groans and pushes out of the doorway, dumping the folders on the kitchen counter.

"Can we not talk about sperm for just like, five minutes?"

Callie pouts a little, and Arizona knows that came out snappier than she intended.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just starving, and stressed, and maybe still a little jet-lagged."

"I know, I know. I'm really sick of Malawi, too."

"Can we just have a nice dinner? We should take advantage of it being just the two of us while we still can"

"You're having doubts."

"No. No! I mean, yes, of course, because I over think everything, but not any serious ones. Nothing that would change my mind. We should definitely do this. I just don't want to be that couple that's obsessed with getting pregnant. I hate that couple."

"Okay."

Callie is still a little annoyed at Arizona's attitude, and more than a little worried. Arizona takes a few deep breaths, runs her fingers through her hair and then offers a smile, crossing back to Callie. She grabs her hands and says insistently:

"Calliope, I love you, and we're gonna have an awesome baby. So let's just sit down, eat some dinner, and then afterwards we can curl up on the couch and go through all of these fine young men and their expensive sperm together. Okay?"

"Mm, no. Not him. He seems pretentious."

"It's a couple of random facts and a baby picture, Arizona. How can that seem pretentious?"

"He looks like a pretentious baby! And all that Harvard undergrad, Yale Law bragging."

"It's not bragging," Callie laughs. "He's just answering the question. And looks who's talking, Miss Hopkins Med."

"That's Doctor Hopkins Med, please."

Callie buries her grin into Arizona's shoulder, tightening her hold around her girlfriend's middle. They're curled up on the couch, as promised, legs stretched out, Arizona nestled between Callie's legs and leaning back against her so they can both see the files she holds up for their attention.

"Okay, pretentious man is out. I guess the baby will get enough of that from its Momma."

Arizona elbows her playfully, and Callie wraps her up to avoid any further blows, pressing a few kisses onto her neck.

"You remembered. About Momma."

Callie smiles against her skin, placing a final, delicate kiss there before pulling away to answer.

"Of course I remembered. I can't wait to hear our baby call you Momma."

Arizona bites her lip and closes her eyes, snuggling further back against Callie. She's sure she wants that, too. Ninety-nine percent of the time.

Callie grabs another folder and looks it over.

"What about this guy?"

Arizona takes the folder from Callie's hands and scans it briefly.

"Doctor, dimples, military background. This guy is like the male version of me. You wanna call him up and ask him on a date?"

"Ooh, it is like internet dating," Callie teases, despite the edge in Arizona's voice.

"Calliope!"

"The male version of you sounds perfect. For the donor, I mean. I'm very happy with my female version, thank you very much."

"I don't like it."

"You don't like what?"

"I don't need our child to look like me to love it more. Or, really, look like some guy who is kinda sorta like me in very superficial ways. So, just... not this one, okay? If you want the blue-eyed blond thing, okay. But not this sperm."

"Okay," Callie says softly as she brushes her fingers up Arizona's upper arms, surprised by her outburst. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. This whole thing just sets me on edge, the idea of some anonymous man walking around with half our kid's DNA."

"Did you want to use a known donor instead?"

"Who? Mark?"

"Ew," Callie shudders. "No Sloan spawn in this uterus. Plus, Mark could never be Uncle Mark; he wants to be a dad, hands on, fulltime. He wouldn't be able to separate himself."

"I was kidding. No Sloan spawn, agreed. And no, knowing the guy wouldn't make it better. I just have to deal."

"Alright," Callie soothes, dropping a kiss to her shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Arizona responds softly.

"There's no one else I would want to raise a baby with, ever," Callie promises. "I dream about it, you know."

"Me too," Arizona whispers, and Callie melts.

"Sometimes I wake up and wish we were already there, with the house and the kids and-"

"The chickens."

"You are so weird. But anyway, then I realize that I want to enjoy every part of the journey together, not just fast forward to the end."

Arizona presses her face into the crook of Callie's neck and smiles. She loves these quiet moments when her Calliope gets adorably cheesy and romantic.

"And then," Callie continues, voice dropping, fingers drifting, "I think about how we won't be able to do this whenever and wherever we want, and I want to take advantage of this part of the journey as much as possible."

Callie slips her hands under Arizona's shirt, trailing her fingers across her stomach, watching with a sly smile as she draws in a quick breath, skin jumping under her touch.

"This part, hmm?"

"Yep."

She drops her lips to Arizona's ear. It's a bit of an awkward angle, but a light nip at her earlobe gets the job done. Arizona hums her approval and lets her head fall to the side to give Callie better access.

Sick of the angle after a few minutes, Arizona tosses the folder to the side and, through a series of rather impressive contortions, flips over, pressing Callie back into the couch, hands on either side of her head. She trails slow kisses up Callie's neck to her ear, whispering:

"And this part?"

"Definitely."

"We've still got a lot of files to go through," Arizona teases, lips hovering above Callie's, a twinkle in her eye.

"They're on ice; they can wait another day."

Arizona tosses her head back and laughs as one of Callie's hands trails lovingly down to hook on the back of her thigh. The other comes up to caress Arizona's cheek, adoring that dimpled smile.

"Okay, but, tomorrow," that smile demands.

"Eager to get started?" Callie asks, locking her eyes on those expressive baby blues. Her tone is teasing, but the question is oh-so-serious.

"Yeah," Arizona admits, blowing out a breath that sends stray stands of hair fluttering for both of them. "I think we're ready."

Callie beams and then pulls her down for a warm, insistent kiss.

The sun streams in through the living room window, illuminating the mess they made last night before eventually moving into their bedroom.

"Mmkay," Arizona says from the couch, pushing one folder forward with her bare foot, hands cradling a bowl of cereal. "How about him?"

Callie pauses before answering, her eyes following that bare foot up equally bare, stunning legs all the way to the edge of the oversized 'Canes sweatshirt Arizona stole from her.

"Calliope, focus," Arizona teases.

Callie shakes herself from her reverie and bends to retrieve the file, feeling Arizona get equally distracted by the shameful amount of cleavage her stretched-out tank top allows.

Sitting down on the couch beside Arizona, she thumbs through the details thoughtfully; great IQ, great education, great medical history, and, most importantly, blue eyes predominating for several generations. She holds out hope for the triumph of her father's rogue blue-eyed gene, but this is really more crucial for her still formulating plan for baby number two. Callie grabs the included baby picture and shows Arizona.

"So cute. And those ears!"

"Aww, those are sweet," Arizona agrees, referencing the slightly goofy ears the tow-headed boy boasts, the left with a distinctive crinkle along the edge, before the lobe.

"Why this one?" Callie asks.

Arizona gestures with her spoon to the sprawling mess of folders around them, swallows, and says matter-of-factly:

"Pretty sure it's the only one we didn't have sex on."

"Clearly a sign," Callie snorts. "Alright, we can go over the whole thing after breakfast."

"Okay, good. Almost done with my cereal."

Callie steals the bowl from Arizona's grasp and sets it on the coffee table.

"Not the breakfast I meant."

As Callie pushes her willingly against the couch, Arizona exclaims: "Wait! The folder. Put it on the end table. We can't defile that, too!"

Callie laughs and does as she's told before returning her attention to the very important task at hand.

el fin