So, just another quick, missing scene one-shot. I thought the end scene between Callie and Mama O'Malley in 8x08 was really sweet and beautiful. I wouldn't change it at all, but I thought it would have been nice if that scene could have become a Calzona scene. So here it is.
While she had been sitting beside Mama O'Malley's bedside, waiting for her to wake up from surgery, Callie had been rehearsing in her head exactly what she planned to say to her former mother-in-law. She had planned to delicately explain how she hadn't simply "become a lesbian," but had fallen in love with the most beautiful and amazing person she had ever met. Someone who made her happy every day, who made her complete, and who just so happened to be a woman. Instead, somehow she found the words "I like girls," falling bluntly from her lips. From there she had rambled on, hearing herself making it worse and worse, but powerless to make anything that sounded remotely intelligent come out of her mouth. She took a breath.
"And I'm umm… I'm… I'm screwing all this up," she said with a sigh. "Look I…" she faltered. "I know this is a lot and I understand…" she faltered again. "Umm, and if this is too much for you to handle, believe me," she released a bitter scoff, "my own mother practically disowned me, so I understand…" As she trailed off for the third time she found it in herself to look Louise in the eye. She saw tears pooling there and panic gripped her. "Oh god. I'm making you cry. Please don't cry," she pleaded in a whisper.
"You have a baby?" Louise croaked, her voice thick with unshed tears.
Callie replied with a frantic nod of her head. "I… I do."
"Do you have any pictures?" Louise asked, hopeful.
Callie bit her bottom lip to keep her own tears at bay as she felt them welling in her eyes. "You wanna see 'em?" she asked, and though she had held back her tears she could hear the emotion thick within her own voice.
"Are you kidding?" Louise replied with a little laugh.
Callie replied with a watery little laugh of her own and pulled out her phone, bringing up an album with dozens of photos of Sofia. As she scooted the chair closer to Mama O'Malley she couldn't help but let out another laugh that mingled slightly with her tears. She felt her fears of explaining her new life to her former mother-in-law evaporating as the woman let out an appreciative gasp and her eyes fell on the picture of Sofia.
"Oh, isn't she beautiful," Louise exclaimed.
As Callie flicked her finger across the screen of her phone to bring up another photo she felt it vibrate, alerting her to an incoming text message from Arizona. A little bubble popped up on the screen and Callie pulled the phone back towards herself to read the message.
"Oh, it's uh, Arizona," she said to Louise before realizing she hadn't told her the blonde's first name. "Uh, Dr. Robbins," she clarified before mentally giving herself a little shake. "Ah, my wife," she finally settled on.
Just finished my pyloric stenosis. Done for the day. You home already? – AZ
"Her shift just ended," Callie reiterated to Louise.
"I'd love to meet her," the older woman smiled from the bed.
Callie's eyes widened a little, but she smiled and replied, "Okay, I'll tell her to come by."
I'm visiting Mama O'Malley. She just woke up from surgery. She says she'd like to meet you – C
Callie's phone buzzed again with an almost instant reply.
We met this morning.
Callie chuckled and replied; This morning she met Dr. Robbins. She'd like to meet my wife.
Really? Okay. Room number?
Callie sent Arizona the number of the room she was currently seated in before turning her attention back to Louise. "She's on her way," Callie confirmed. She returned the phone to her photo album of Sofia and passed it back to Louise. As they flicked through the album together, Louise oohing and ahhing at every adorable picture, she paused on a photo of Sofia and Arizona.
Callie smiled, it was one of her favourites and was currently the wallpaper on her laptop. A candid shot of her girls, Sofia, seated on Arizona's lap, was reaching towards her mother's face while Arizona kissed the outstretched little hand.
"They look so happy," Louise smiled.
"We are," Callie replied, and she couldn't help her smile growing even larger. "I am… I'm so happy."
A knock sounded at the door, and Callie looked up to see Arizona standing in the open doorway, her hand resting against the frame. She entered when Callie shot her a smile.
"Hi," Arizona said cheerfully to Louise as she walked into the room and pulled up a chair next to Callie's.
Callie smiled at her. "Louise, this is my wife, Arizona Robbins. Arizona, I'd like you to meet my friend, Louise O'Malley."
Arizona smiled warmly at the woman before her. "How are you feeling?"
"Oh, I'm fine," Louise said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm even better, now that I'm looking at pictures of your beautiful baby."
Arizona's smile grew wider. "Oh, you've gotta be careful with that. She'll stop your heart she's so cute, and well, you just had surgery."
Callie glanced at the screen to see where Louise was in the photo album. "You're almost at the end of the album."
"Oh no," Louise sighed.
"Oh, that's okay, I have more," Arizona beamed as she pulled out her own phone. "There might be some doubles," she said as she extended the device to Louise.
"I think I could suffer through looking at a few of them twice," Louise chuckled.
The three women sat together for a little over an hour, scrolling through the pictures on Arizona's phone while Callie and Arizona related anecdotes that the photos reminded them of. When they reached the end of Arizona's album Louise handed her back the phone.
"I'd love to meet her sometime," Louise said, and Callie could hear a sincere hopefulness in her voice.
"She's at her dad's tonight," the Latina replied. "But definitely. We'd love for you to meet her."
Louise's face broke out in a grin. "You could come over for dinner some time!" she said excitedly. "I've missed having a daughter Callie," she added sincerely. "And now I could have two."
"That sounds fantastic," Arizona replied, a genuine smile playing on her lips.
Louise sighed and leaned back against her pillows. Callie could see the fatigue in her features. "We'll let you rest," Callie said softly, rising from her chair, Arizona following suit. "But we'll see you again soon."
Louise nodded. "Thank you for stopping by girls."
They made their way down the hall without speaking as they headed to the locker room, both finished their shifts but both still in their scrubs. Arizona had questions she wanted to ask Callie, but she sensed that her wife's mind was elsewhere and so she remained quiet, content to wait until Callie surfaced from her thoughts to question her.
Callie remained silent as they changed, but when Arizona put on her coat and hung her bag over her shoulder, Callie reached over and took her hand, threading their fingers together. "Ready to go?" Callie asked. Arizona smiled and nodded. They walked out of the hospital hand in hand. As they started on the short walk home, Arizona gave Callie's hand a gentle squeeze, prompting Callie to start talking.
"That was easy," she sighed.
"It was," Arizona agreed happily. "It was friendly and comfortable. She's very sweet."
"Did you see how she fawned over Sofia?" Callie asked.
"Well," Arizona chuckled, "Can you blame her? I mean, who doesn't fawn over our beautiful girl?"
"My own mother," Callie replied shortly.
Arizona turned abruptly to look at Callie. Callie had barely spoken to her mother since the wedding. For the most part, her mother was a topic of conversation that Callie had refused to talk about, and so Arizona was surprised to hear her wife bring it up.
"She was happy for me, for us. I told her I got married and had a baby and she asked to see pictures and to meet the two of you. That's what a person is supposed to do. She didn't preach morality at me, she was just happy. She just accepted it. Accepted me, for who I am."
"She didn't even bat an eye when you mentioned that Sofia has a dad," Arizona agreed. "Even my parents can't get their head around that," Arizona smiled, alluding to the fact that her father still referred to Mark as the "sperm donor" in a light attempt at humour.
Callie shook her head. "She wants to meet Sofia. Did you see her face when she asked if she could meet her? My mother's never even held her."
Arizona raised their still joined hands and kissed Callie's knuckles. "I know it's not fair," she said softly. "I know it's not fair that two women can have the same beliefs, but two such completely different understandings. It's not fair that your mom and George's mom are both Catholic, but only George's mom understands that when two people are in love, that's not a sin, that's just beautiful."
They had entered their apartment. Callie let go of Arizona's hand to drop her bag and take off her coat, but as soon as they were both divested of these items, Arizona took Callie's hand again and lead her to their bedroom. They crawled onto the bed and leaned against the headboard.
"You're right, it's not fair," Callie finally broke as tears slipped down her cheeks. "How come Mama O'Malley can be Catholic and still love me when my mother can't?"
"Callie," Arizona said softly, pulling Callie towards her. Callie rested her head against Arizona and cried into her chest.
"I was terrified to tell this woman about my beautiful, happy life, because I was afraid she'd react like my mother, and I couldn't deal with that again."
"I know," Arizona whispered into her hair. She ran her hand in soothing patterns up and down Callie's back, and held her as she cried, whispering comforting words into her ear.
After a while, Callie's tears ceased. She'd shifted so that her head was lying in Arizona's lap, while Arizona idly played with her hair. They had been sitting in comfortable silence for a while when Callie spoke.
"She wanted grandkids so bad," Callie said. "George and I, we tried, for a bit, before it ended, we tried. But obviously it didn't happen and I think, I think that upset her more than the divorce itself. The fact that she wasn't going to be getting a grandkid any time soon. And then George died, and Ronnie and Jerry, they're nice guys but, I don't see them having kids. She probably thinks she'll never have a grandchild, so it would be nice if she could meet Sofia."
"That would be nice," Arizona agreed, twirling a lock of Callie's hair through her fingers. She paused. "Can I ask you something?"
"Mmmm" Callie replied.
"Why did you tell her? About me? You obviously didn't want to this morning, and I meant it when I said that was okay. That wasn't a test or something stupid to see if you would do the right thing," she said as she resumed playing with Callie's hair.
Callie chuckled. "I didn't think it was a test. She saw my ring this morning and asked Meredith if I was remarried. Meredith told her that I was and that we were happy. Then Meredith told me that Louise was scared about the surgery and that she missed me. So then I felt guilty and I knew I had to go visit her and I just thought, Meredith's right. I am happy. I'm so happy. I'm so in love. Why would I want to hide that?"
Arizona smiled. "But you said you were terrified to tell her?"
"I was. But I knew I had to visit her, and I knew I couldn't lie. And I knew that I am so in love with you that it really didn't matter what she thought anyways."
Arizona leaned forward and planted a kiss on Callie's temple. "Hmmm, I am so in love with you too."
"But it was nice that she was happy for us," Callie admitted.
Arizona let out a little laugh, "Of course it was."
Silence fell again for a moment before Callie asked, "Do you think my mother's ever gonna come around?"
Arizona hesitated a moment. "I hope she does," she replied.
"But you don't think she will?"
"Honestly, Callie, I don't know. I don't know her very well. She's never been my biggest fan. I don't know if she's the type to change her mind."
Callie gave a bitter laugh. "She's a lawyer. They don't change their minds. Once she thinks she's right…" Callie's voice trailed off.
"Then I hope she realizes she's wrong," Arizona replied sincerely.
Callie smirked. "You don't think you could just walk up to her and give her one of your impressive little speeches? You know, maybe mention how you were named after the USS Arizona, and explain to her that I'm still the same girl she raised?"
The hand in Callie's hair stilled. "Your dad told you about that?"
Callie rolled onto her back so that her head still rested in Arizona's lap but she was now looking straight up at her wife. "He did. It's part of the reason he likes you so much. Not only did you stand up to him, but you made him change his mind. And no one changes his mind. He said he knew that if you could do that, you could take care of me."
"Hmm," Arizona let out an appreciative little hum and leaned down to kiss Callie.
"Thank you," Callie said. "For that, I've never thanked you for talking to him, for changing his mind. I mean, I owe you - "
"Shh," Arizona cut her off. "You don't owe me anything. You don't have to thank me."
Callie smiled. "That night, he asked me if I would marry you, and I said yes."
Arizona smiled back. "I told him I loved you. I'd never said it to you, but I said it to him." She paused. "I guess we were a little ahead of ourselves that day, huh?"
Callie shrugged. "Nah, we just knew that someday we'd be this happy."
I know, another one-shot. Another "missing scene." I do promise that I am spinning a longer, multi-chapter story that isn't just a missing scene or a continued scene. But I don't like to start posting longer stories until I have the entire thing written. So until then, hopefully these little one shots will do. I'm still learning, trying to figure out how to write a longer Calzona fic, and the feedback I've been getting has been fabulous and extremely helpful. So if you have the time I greatly appreciate your reviews.