Title: The Bunny and the Eggs
Author:lilyme
Summary: Curiosity about the connection of eggs, bunnies and Easter leads to a little confusion, a fair amount of embarassment and an unexpected talk two parents had secretly hoped for.
Characters: Callie/Arizona, Sofia
Rating:PG
Disclaimer:I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Grey's Anatomy". They were created by Shonda Rhimes and belong to her and the ABC network. No copyright infringement intended! All mistakes are mine.
A/N: Happy late Easter! ;)
She stalked her terrain. On the hunt for some treats she just knew lay hidden, waiting to be discovered by her keen eyes.
Her basket was already full to the brim, a clear sign on how successful her raid was.
And with a squeal of joy she realized that she was still not done. "Found one more!" the little girl exclaimed and held up yet another colorfully painted egg for her parents to see.
Her parents, Callie and Arizona, by name, were sitting on a bench nearer to the house, and enjoyed watching their four year-old rascal run around the garden. On the prowl for Easter eggs and other goodies they had stashed away for her for this special day.
Special for two reasons. One it being Easter Sunday of course. And two, it was the first Easter they got to spend in their new house.
They had bought it three months ago. A beautiful one-story home from the mid-seventies. With big windows, a wooden facade in light fawn, a dark roof on the outside. And a spacious kitchen, a dining room, two living rooms, four bedrooms and three bathrooms on the inside.
It was located in one of Seattle's quieter areas, in a small neighborhood community close to Blyth Park.
Arizona had been so over the moon when Callie had agreed to buy this gem. She had feared it would be way harder to convince her wife to move out of her bat cave. By now partly beige-tinted, but still with an appeal a little too edgy for Arizona's taste.
Yes, admittedly, the apartment had its perks. The most obvious one being that it was literally right across the street from the hospital, and therefore allowed for an insanely short commute.
But Arizona had always wanted to someday live somewhere with a little more room, and a lot more green, Callie knew.
And so when they had visited the house and she had seen the over-excited faces of her wife and daughter at the idea of living here – even though it was a good thirty minutes away from work and preschool – the brunette had not hesitated one second. The happiness of her family by far outweighing the sorrow of losing her first real home in Seattle. Her hideout in the basement at Seattle Grace, the time she had stayed with George at Meredith's and the months she had crashed on Cristina's couch not really counting.
They had adapted to their new surroundings nicely, using this new start to really design the inside of the house together. The little squabbles about the wall-colors by now a tradition with her wife Callie held really dear. At least the walls weren't beige anymore, but rather a mix of other... pastel colors. Not really Callie's style, still, but she was getting used to it. She had been able to carry through some of her wishes in furniture, at least. The living room and hallway with the dark mahogany shelves, sideboards and bureaus almost exclusively her idea and a nice contrast to the light walls.
Plus Arizona had allowed her to color their master bedroom's walls in a ruby tone. The blonde willingly admitted that this gave the room a really intimate atmosphere. And that made the room one easily of their favorites.
Sofia's favorite was naturally her own room. Decorated just as pastel-y and brightly as her Mami Arizona would have fashioned the entire house, if one had let her.
The house was their joined project; they were all very proud of it. And as far as space was concerned, they couldn't have done better. The backyard with adjoining garden alone was almost as big as the living room of the apartment had been.
Thus it was clearly a feature little Sofia enjoyed very much about the new habitat. Understandably. It had a swing, a small slide, a little sandbox and in general plenty of room to explore and do fun activities.
Like Easter egg hunting.
"Here!" they heard Sofia's little voice as another egg went into her little container.
"Good, baby," Arizona shouted over. "Come here a sec and show us, how full your basket is, okay?" she proposed and the little girl obliged, spurting over with her yellow and rose summer dress flowing in April's already warm air.
Callie wore a dress quite similar – albeit in light-blue and yellow. Her two girls had given it to her for her last birthday. And despite usually preferring much darker colors herself, the brunette had chosen this day to wear it – knowing Sofia and Arizona would love it.
She took the basket and counted the contents, adding them to the things already laid out on the wooden crate next to the bench. Making sure their daughter had found all things hidden in the garden.
She wasn't too fond of the idea of stumbling across a rotting and smelling egg in a month or so. Or finding one of the other presents overlooked, withered and worn by often unstable spring weather.
"This looks great, sweetie. You found it all," she smiled in satisfaction and hugged her mini-me to her.
"Oh, wait up," Arizona interrupted. Almost unnoticed by the duo she had disappeared into the house. "Mr. and Mrs. Bunny told us that one of their friends is pretty lonely and wants to live with you," she announced and conjured up a medium-sized bunny plushie from behind her back. All equipped with its own bag full of eggs hanging from its shoulder.
Callie looked at her wife in amused disbelief. Actually they had an agreement to cut back on the stuffed animals a little. Seeing as how Sofia's bed was already so full the girl herself hardly fit in with them anymore.
With the four year-old refusing to give away even just one of the animals and demanding they all sleep in her bed, it was starting to become a problem.
Scratch the starting to. It already was a problem.
But apparently Arizona hadn't been able to resist the cuteness of this one. And against better judgment Callie had to agree that it was adorable.
"Oh, thank you!" Sofia rejoiced and hugged her mom before inspecting the bunny.
"Are you happy, baby?" Callie asked as Sofia marched back to the crate to add her new friend to the wild arrangement of candy eggs and real ones, a few toys – including a little space shuttle and a Barbie – and some crayons and colored pencils, so she could live out her artsy nature. Seeing as there wasn't enough room for her plushie, however, she opted to keep hugging it instead.
"Yes!" the girl answered vigorously to the question, but soon her parents noticed her lip protruding in contemplation.
Having had the honor of raising her for four years now, Callie and Arizona knew that some sort of question was growing in the young mind always thirsty for knowledge.
The age of four was the inquisitive one. And Sofia asked a lot of things. Rarely anything unimportant. So the women were keen to know what was going on inside her head her this time.
"What is it?" Arizona decided to address the matter.
The little one thought for a moment if she could find the answer herself. But soon accepted that it was not possible. "Why do we have eggs and bunnies for Easter?" the girl queried and her face portrayed true puzzlement out of lack of logical connection of the three things.
"That's a good question," Arizona agreed, encouraging the four year-old's curious mind. And also stalling, since she was busy thinking about the perfect and most child-oriented explanation.
Her wife was already one step further and began, "Well, you see, they're symbols of fertility."
"What's 'fertly'?" Sofia immediately chimed in and squinted her eyes at the adult, having never heard that difficult word.
Arizona inwardly chuckled at her wife's approach, which seemed better suited for a kid a few years older. At least vocabulary-wise. "It means, like, new life," she decided to help out a little. "You know how in spring everything starts to grow again? All the trees get new leaves and the flowers grow blossoms?" she tried and Sofia nodded.
Callie smiled at the assistance. Picking up Sofia and seating her on her lap, she continued on this more promising route. "And a lot of animals have babies in spring. Like bunnies, for example".
"Oh, okay," Sofia bobbed her little head at her parents' statements.
However, "And the bunny babies grow in eggs?" the connection between the colorful objects and the hippy-hoppy animal was still up for debate, as the clever follow-up of the preschooler reminded them.
Because why else would bunnies have eggs, if they weren't theirs?
"Um," it was Callie who stalled this time. It was getting a little complicated. And technically bunnies in eggs wasn't even all wrong, since that was where the tiny embryos started to develop. "Well, these eggs the bunny gets from some really nice hens, who want to make kids happy. And the bunny paints them, so they look pretty".
"Uh-huh," Sofia agreed, looking down down at her plushie and the plushie eggs in the basket, processing the information. "And the baby bunnies?"
"Oh, right," her mom remembered the question about them growing in eggs. "Um, they sort of grow in eggs too. But a different kind of egg. A lot of babies come from eggs," she concluded, her face growing desperate at her funky explanation of life. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Arizona by now full on stifling a laugh at the truthful, but for a little child likely misleading exchange.
"And human babies? They come from eggs too?" Sofia ruminated further.
And Callie just moved her head in a half-nod-half-shake, glad that Sofia's eyes were focused elsewhere. "From a very special type of egg, yeah," she confirmed and silently prayed to the Easter Bunny that this would be it about this particular topicfor now.
Because this parent was clearly not prepared for The Talk just yet. Having figured it'd be a couple more years.
Of course Sofia's inquisitiveness and her own floundering over the correct way to explain it had brought them here, so she had to blame herself.
To Callie's dismay, Detective Sofia Robbins Sloan Torres was far from done. "But how does the baby get into the egg? Like... like, chicken... not all chicken eggs have babies".
Sofia knew this first hand. Due to Arizona's wish they were considering getting a coop and some chicken. And had recently visited a little chicken farm to see if it was really a thing for them. The farmer had explained a lot about the animals and eggs to her, so Sofia knew that most eggs didn't hold babies. The process of getting the baby chicken into the egg, however, had not been discussed. And right now Callie wished it was different.
She cleared her throat. "I'm sure Mami can explain," she deflected the responsibility of enlightening their daughter and got up, placing Sofia in her previous spot on befuddled Arizona's side. "She's a baby doctor. She knows all about this. I'll be right out with the cake, okay?"
"Yes!" Sofia squealed in anticipation of the cake Mama had promised they'd have after the hunt. And at the prospect of a really good explanation from her Mami Arizona, who was a veritable baby doctor by now. Having started a successful fellowship in fetal medicine almost a year ago. So as Sofia understood it, she was now an expert on tiny unborn babies as well as big kids like herself.
The expert in question stared at her wife in a flight of despair at the obvious attempt to escape and mouthed a 'smooth move' to the the overwhelmed woman, who hastened to get inside.
Sofia failed to catch the exchange, and looked at her "Mami?" expectantly.
"Uh, well, you see...," she cleared her throat, hugging Sofia to her. She met the intense dark eyes that reminded her of Callie every day. "If, um... if two adults... or two chicken love each other very much, they might... cuddle... a lot," she smirked, agreeing with herself that this wasn't too bad of a start. "And a some point that might lead to a baby, because they love babies. Baby's are always great, you know?" she admitted and kissed the girl's head.
"And the cuddling helps make the baby?" Sofia followed and nestled into her mom's arm.
"Uh-huh," Arizona agreed, satisfied with calling the actual process 'adult cuddling' for now. That's all Sofia needed to know at her age. "The grown-ups cuddle and a part of each get into the egg to make a baby. With chicken, the mama lays the eggs early on and the little chicken grow outside the mama. That's why they have this hard shell to protect them. And when they're ready, they break the egg and slip out. With human babies, they start out as eggs too, but then the egg shell gets thinner and thinner, as the baby grows, until there is just a fragile skin left. That's why human babies stay in their mom's belly until they're ready to be born, alright? She protects them that way".
To that Sofia hummed her enthusiastic consent. That human babies grow in the belly, she already knew. Having been to work with Mami a couple of times. And also from some of her parents' friends, who had grown babies in bellies.
"So, humans only lay the egg once the baby wants to come out," Sofia concluded.
"Sort of, yeah," Arizona pinched the bridge of her nose when Sofia wasn't looking. Why, oh, why had Callie started this whole humans and eggs thing? God knows what Sofia really imagined went on inside a pregnant woman, and during birth.
If the time was ripe for a more detailed version of The Talk, she definitely would not let her coward of a wife flee the scene. They would do that one together.
But at least their daughter seemed content enough. As far as the few moments of silence indicated.
"So, Mama and Daddy cuddled a lot and then I got into the egg?" Sofia asked.
"That's right," Arizona returned. Strange how answering this question suddenly felt so easy in comparison to the conversation of the last minutes.
And truth be told, by now she was far past the circumstances of Sofia's conception. As unorthodox as it was, she would not change one bit about her daughter's story. Sofia was growing up in the best family ever, if she was allowed to judge.
"But now only you cuddle Mama, right? And you love her very much?"
"Absolutely," the blonde found herself readily agreeing to the state of their relationship. Her mind ready to dwell on moments of this bliss.
So ready, in fact, that she nearly missed the next mental leap of Sofia's mind. "Can you try to cuddle Mama really tight so she can lay more baby eggs?"
"Can...," Arizona's thoughts came to a screeching halt.
"Can you... Can I... what?!" Callie equally surprised voice sounded from the back door of the house in confusion.
Sofia climbed off the bench and neared Mama to explain. "Mami said that cuddling makes a baby in the egg. Can you lay a baby egg so I can have a baby brother like Bailey?"
"Oh," Callie realized, now caught up to the train of thought. But this didn't mean she wasn't at a loss of what to say. Perplex she looked between her excited daughter, hugging into her side and waiting for an answer, and her flustered wife, who was trying to blend in with the bench she was still occupying. Even though her white shorts and shirt matched the color of said piece of furniture, her beet-red face still made her stick out. "I... uhh, well... maybe," she returned diplomatically. "But, look, cake is ready," she changed the subject and showed Sofia the tray she was holding. With plates, cups and a thermos full of tea. And not to forget Sofia's favorite strawberry cheese cake".
"Yay!" the girl shouted, with that her focus on the cuddle-produced babies in eggs seemingly deterred for now.
"Alright. Go wash your hands, sweetie," she ordered and Sofia was already on her way to do as asked.
As soon as she was gone, Callie turned her attention towards her wife. "I was gone for a whole three minutes...," she teased, walking down the few steps of the porch and setting out the table in the garden for them.
"In my defense... I didn't make the egg thing any worse. It's not like you gave me a good start...," the blonde protested.
And the inquiry for a sibling had caught her equally off guard as it must have her wife.
"True," Callie blushed at the playful accusation. "But the cuddles?" she cocked an eyebrow in amusement, "can you imagine her spreading her new knowledge in preschool?"
"I'd rather not," Arizona grinned as she watched her wife finish up and deposit the tray on the ground. "Maybe we should warn her teacher about it". Before incomplete knowledge leads to total confusion of a young generation of Seattleites.
At this, Callie laughed wholeheartedly. "Oh, God, Mark is gonna love this so much," she said and used the opportunity to sit on Arizona's vacant lap, smiling at the sight and feel of her own legs brushing against the blonde's. Arizona's legs always significantly paler than her naturally tan ones. But the April sun gave them a subtle freckling.
The other woman laughed along, leaning her head against her wife's chest, as Callie draped one arm around her shoulder. Her own arms instinctively moving around Callie's waist. "So true. I can already hear his comments on that. Wonder how he would have gone about this".
Mark was absent for Sofia's first big egg hunt at her mothers' house. Which in any other situation would be a big affront to their daughter.
But he had an excuse.
A really good one.
He was on his honeymoon with Lexie in Curacao. The two of them having gotten married two weeks ago.
They hadn't heard a lot from them since the wedding. God knows what they were doing and how busy he was cuddling Lexie.
His baby mamas were really happy for him. And Sofia was excited to have yet another mom.
And who knows, maybe they were planning on a sibling for Sofia already. Mark definitely open to the idea.
"But, Calliope, honey, could you... um," Arizona bit her lip as she looked up at her woman, trying to gain her attention from where Callie was absently stroking her arm.
The brunette turned her head and Arizona was able to lock eyes with her. Her beautiful wife and mother of her child. She really was her dream come true. A dream that had long not included children. But now that she was experiencing the joy of motherhood, it was something she wouldn't want to miss.
"Could you…," she grasped the strong hand on her arm and entwined their fingers. "Could you imagine laying more baby eggs in the future?" she finally dared to formulate her thought and felt her pulse quickening in expectation of the answer.
The realization that Sofia herself was actually mulling the idea and wanted a sibling was working in the blonde's mind. Not for the first time making her think about this matter.
Callie raised her eyebrows. Not at the wording, which would seriously become an inside joke for their family for all eternity. But at the question itself.
They hadn't talked about this. With so much happening in their lives, their careers right now.
But things were going so great in that respect and they had a really stable relationship. And now they had this amazing house, with a couple of spare rooms they had right now planned out as offices or a play room for Sofia plus a guest room.
Yet of course they could be used in other ways as well.
Callie looked at her wife, who five years ago had been so adamant about not ever wanting kids. But now she seemed serious about this.
Could this really in the future for them? More babies?
It certainly had been her dream growing up. Maybe not ten kids, but something like three or four always having played out in her imagination of her future.
Naturally her little self had not lost too many thoughts on the carrying a baby around in you for a whole long while. She thought back on her pregnancy with Sofia. Remembering the nine and a half months full of hormonal mood swings, swollen feet and stretch marks. Stupid fights over tiny, tiny things her pregnant brain thought up.
Not to mention the grand finale with almost thirty hours of labor.
But there were the good parts too. Arizona caring for her throughout it all with devotion. Talking to their baby in the belly for hours, and content to just hold her tight whenever Callie did not at all feel ready to make love to her – which had often been the case. And then holding her hand straight through the thirty aforementioned hours. Never leaving her side.
It had been a wonderful journey.
And the outcome of it all... This tiny adorable hatchling with the alert mind and beautiful imagination. The girl they had already had so many incredible moments with – from first words and first steps. To the girl drawing pictures for them that were completely adorable and completely unrecognizable. To hours filled with laughter and rarely a moment of quietness in their lives.
With a prospect of having more of that, her decision was clear. "I absolutely want to" she said sincerely and whimpered a little as she noticed Arizona's emotional tears at her reply.
"Really? Oh, God, I love you so much," the blonde whispered and leaned up to kiss Callie in promise of some more babies.
"I love you too," Callie returned and held her wife close to her chest as they both tried to get their tears under control.
Arizona saw their house fill with more Callie-shaped wonders. Wanting this to happen as soon as possible. And who knew, maybe she could even imagine adding a mini-Arizona as well. Callie certainly would not object.
"We're ready," Sofia announced her return, unaware as to what her proposal had lead her mothers' hearts to. They watched their first-born sit at the table with her new friend, the Easter Bunny plushie.
"We're ready too," Mama Callie decided, grabbing Mami Arizona's hand to lead her to the table.
And into an exciting future.
***
END