It's over.

Two months of talking with lawyers, and not talking with Callie, and three long days in court, and...it's over.

Sofia is going to New York.

Arizona gazes at her daughter's empty bedroom; the lavender walls, butterfly patterned bedspread, the bright fuchsia lampshade the little girl had insisted they buy at Ikea. Her curtains are pastel rainbows, and the collection of stuffed animals that live at this house are piled onto the toy chest in the corner. On the dresser, amidst some framed family photos and favourite books, sits a ballerina jewelry box, a spaceship piggy bank, and an array of hair clips and headbands of all shapes and sizes. Everything about the room is so...Sofia.

Sighing softly, the blonde raises the stuffed bear in her arms up to her face and breathes deeply. It still smells like her little girl, too. There had been hours of tears when she learned that she'd be moving away to another city, but she had insisted Arizona keep one of her favourite bears, Mr. Brown, and Arizona had been helpless to say no. She had, selfishly, been happy to keep the treasured companion, and he'd been sitting on her own dresser ever since.

Because it really is over.

She'll see her daughter in three weeks, and they'll go to Central Park. They'll get ice cream, and explore New York together, and wear fluffy robes and dance to too-loud music in the expensive hotel room that she's going to book for them - and then three days later she'll fly back to Seattle to this empty room and a house that no longer has toys underfoot and crayons on the coffee table, and that is much, much too silent minus its youngest occupant. She'll hug Mr. Brown, and she'll let herself curl up on the butterfly bedspread for only a moment, and she'll book her ticket for her next trip across the country.

They're not even gone yet and Arizona misses her desperately already.

If she's honest with herself, she misses more than Sofia. She misses Callie. She misses the friendship, the marriage, the life she had with the other woman. She always has, but the feeling hits her square in the chest now when faced with the fact that she won't be seeing the brunette every day anymore. No more familiar glimpses of dark hair in the hallways at work, no more friendly banter over Callie's failed dates or the drama of their mutual friends. No more standing across the OR table from her and watching the beautiful, brilliant focus on her face as she works on a patient.

No more hand-offs of Sofia's favourite books, or sweaters that she left behind. No more coordinating who picks her up after dance class.

Arizona hopes Callie can find another dance school in New York. Their daughter really did love those classes.

She's going to miss watching from the sidelines.

Stepping further into the room, she places the bear in the middle of the pillows, gently smoothing a wrinkle out of the comforter. Will Sofia even like butterflies anymore a year from now?

Her eyes fall upon the framed photo that sits on the nightstand - her, Callie, and Sofia on a picnic blanket at the park. She remembers it well, that day maybe six months before their marriage collapsed on a rainy evening in a dark therapist's office. They'd asked a gentleman passing by with his dog if he could stop and take their picture, and with Callie's arms around her, and her arms around Sofia, and huge smiles on all their faces, they were the very image of a perfect family. A happy family.

And they had been, then. They'd been happy once.

The sound of the doorbell startles the blonde, bringing her out of her reverie enough to glance at the watch on her left wrist and see that it's nearly eight o'clock at night. Brow slightly furrowed, she descends the stairs as it rings again, ready to be politely annoyed at whatever door-to-door salesman has shown up this late in the evening. But when she pulls the front door open her eyes widen in surprise, mind immediately racing into overdrive as she sees the familiar face of her ex-wife standing on the porch.

"Callie? What are you - where's Sofia? Is everything alright?"

"I dropped her off at Meredith's."

"I don't understand...your flight was delayed? Where's Pen-"

Arizona trails off, barely able to let the name of the other woman escape her lips. Not after the last three days.

Callie just tilts her head towards the evening sky, a half attempt at a laugh getting stuck in her throat. But when she glances back at the blonde there's a sheen of tears coating her eyes, and a look somewhere between sorrow and fear on her beautiful face.

"Somewhere over Montana, probably."

Arizona can feel her heartbeat speed up as the words leave the other woman, but she isn't given a chance to think before the familiar voice continues.

"I'm in the airport - we're at the airport - and we make it through security and we pick up some snacks and settle in at our gate, but I'm sitting there, and all I'm doing is crying. I can't stop crying."

The brunette pauses for a moment, reaching up to wipe at her eyes.

"And not just like, blinking away tears but full on, completely crying in the middle of the waiting room. And I think it's because I'm leaving Seattle - leaving my friends, my home, work...the stress of the last couple of weeks...but then Sofia looks up at me, and she says 'mommy why are you crying?' And the first thing out of my mouth is that I'm going to miss momma. I'm going to miss you."

She looks skyward again for a brief moment, letting out a soft breath in the cool night air, shaking her head ever so slightly.

"And Sof...she just looks at me, and she's wearing that butterfly hoodie, and she says 'then why don't we go home?' And I just..."

The taller woman breaks then, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she meets Arizona's stunned gaze.

"I had to leave. This has all been a mistake. You're home, Arizona. You're my home. And I can't keep letting you walk by because after the things you said the other day...I think you might still feel something for me and if you do - if you feel even a little someth-"

"I feel more than a little something."

Arizona manages to form words despite her complete and utter shock - but they're easy words to form. It's an effortless answer to give. Because of course she still feels something for the woman who was her wife; she feels everything in her presence, and she's starting to figure out that maybe that's what love really is. It's not just the feeling of love, of caring and devotion - it's the feelings of frustration, and annoyance, and attraction, and trust. The feeling that the person in front of you both drives you insane and drives you insane with desire. The feeling of being so passionate about another person that it brings out the very best and the very worst in you, and you don't care if they see it all. If they see every single piece of you. Because you want every piece of them, as well.

And Callie freezes, her dark eyes meeting blue as she hears an answer that she didn't entirely expect.

"You do?"

"I do."

The blonde's voice softens, barely audible over the quiet Seattle breeze, but her heart is screaming in her chest and her mind is overflowing with a hope she hadn't dared even think about until this moment.

"We have to..." she speaks again, her jaw trembling slightly as she holds the other woman's gaze, "Callie...are you sure about this?"

And the words have hardly left her before the blonde feels her back collide with the open front door, two strong hands cupping her cheeks before fingers slip back into her hair and warm, soft lips meet hers in a long-awaited embrace. A familiar arm slides down to wrap around her lower back, pulling her closer as the kiss deepens, but almost as soon as it's started it's over and Arizona opens her eyes to catch her breath and watch the gorgeous woman who hovers mere inches in front of her face. The brunette's eyes are awash with a million and one emotions, and Arizona can feel the palpable energy; the chemistry, the attraction, the pure magnetic force that flows between them and always seems to draw them back to one another - as if they were always meant to be right here, to be together. And when Callie speaks again, there is no hesitation. There is only confidence. There is only them. And Arizona knows that even if she wanted to say no, even if she wanted to play it safe and keep her heart tucked away, she'd be powerless to do so because everything about this feels so right.

"I have never been more sure. If you'll have me...I'm coming home."

.

.

So I'm going home,

Back to the place where I belong,

And where your love has always been enough for me

-Daughtry

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