Author's note: Well... it's a prolific morning, I do admit I've had this one almost done for a while but hadn't been able to finish it. I decided that Timothy was younger I sort of had the feeling after Arizona's ''marry a chick'' comment that he was probably younger but that's just the feeling I had... Oh and I know tomorrow is mother's day but it's also No Socks Day, so keep that in mind (yeah, I celebrate bizarre holidays, it keeps life interesting).
Arizona sat nervously alone in the dark, in their living room. Nursing a jack on the rocks, her leg shaking on it's own. She doesn't usually drink Jack Daniels, in fact she only drinks the stuff once a year has a tribute. She takes another sip grimacing at the taste and watches patiently has the clock finally indicates 12:00.
Well it's official, her brother has now been gone for eight whole years. She downs the rest of her drink and takes the photo album that's resting next to her on the couch. She takes a deep breath not feeling the need to suppress her sadness and let's the tears come.
Somehow her need to feel Callie's arms around her seems unbearable but she doesn't want her wife to be a part of this ritual. No, this is between Tim and her and no matter how heartbroken she gets, the need to keep this tradition alive overpowers everything. She knows anyway that has usual, Callie will get up extra early to make blueberry pancakes and spend the rest of the day trying to take her mind off the painful anniversary. But for now, Arizona just wants to feel it.
She opens the album and chuckles. Her face is covered in tears but she can't suppress a smile from emerging has she looks at the reminders of her childhood. The silly fights Tim and her got into, the 4th of July hot dog eating contests, the tree house they built without their parents permission, the trip to the hospital when said tree house collapse shortly after. As painful as his death was, there was nothing but pure happiness when she thought about growing up with him.
Her smile fades when she suddenly realises how little she thought about Tim these days. He used to cross her mind several times a day before but now, she probably thought about him once a week at best. Of course, between work, Sofia, Callie and… Mark Sloan, her thoughts had been preoccupied elsewhere but she made a mental note that she should definitely start telling Sofia about her amazing uncle. At sixteen months old, she was finally at that age that she was starting to understand and really getting a grasp that there was a world outside their apartment.
A though Arizona's mind and she really feels the need to talk to Callie. She tries to fight the urge to wake her up but the Jack Daniels is really impairing her judgment.
"Callie." Callie feels a nudge on her shoulder but fights to ignore it. "Callie!" There it is again. Still asleep, Callie opens her eyes to find her wife standing above her.
"What?" Is all she can manage to say still fighting her eyelids who seems to be closing on their own.
"I'm ready to talk about it." Arizona exclaims eager to let her wife know.
"Talk about what?" She says as she gets a whiff of Arizona's breath. "Have you been drinking?"
"No, well… yes but that's not why I'm ready to talk about it."
Callie ponders for a second. Wait, did she say talk about it as in talk about what she's been asking for the past three months and that Arizona just keeps brushing off saying she's not ready yet.
"Really?"
"I had an epiphany. I'm ready."
"Wait, is this about your brother? Because I can wait a little longer. I don't want you to feel pressured."
"It is about Timothy but that's a good thing. What I went through losing him was unbearable but… I had twenty-five years with him, twenty-five incredible years and I want that for Sofia, she deserves that."
"So you're not only saying you wanna talk about it, you're saying you wanna do it?" Callie inquires unable to hide her excitement.
"Well, there's a lot to talk about but yeah. I want another baby." Arizona says pulling her wife closer and pressing a heated kiss on her lips.
Callie pulls away and brings her hand to caress Arizona's cheek. "I do have one request." She looks into her wife's eyes pleading with her. "I wanna use your egg. I want to have your baby."
Arizona pulls away a little shocked and a little confused.
"I'm sorry, unless you want to carry this one. I just assumed…" Arizona puts her finger on Callie's lips stopping her from rambling.
"No, I'm not… I don't… I don't know that I'll ever want to do that. That's not why I'm shocked, it's just." She pauses trying to find the right words. "I hadn't thought about it before. I just always envisioned us giving Sofia a blood related sibling."
"You're not blood related, that doesn't make you anything less than her mother. No matter what they are gonna be siblings."
"There is still one way to give her a blood related sister or brother."
"Are you, Arizona Robbins, actually suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"
"I'm not saying anything. I think we should at least consider it."
Callie pulls her wife in for another kiss. "I love you and I love that you'd be willing to have Mark father this one but… I want this baby to be yours and mine. I wanna be selfish now, I don't want to have to deal with him for every decision. He's a great father but you have to admit this would be so much easier if it was just you and me."
"Trust me, the thought of mixing my DNA with his is repulsive but he's a good dad. Our lives are so… complicated how are we gonna explain that one to a kid. Your sister has a dad but you don't. What if… What if I'm not enough?"
"Baby." Callie rarely uses pet names but in this particular moment, it just slips out. She pulls Arizona to her feeling the need to be as close as possible. "You are… everything. Is it gonna be easy? No. Are we gonna have to deal with questions and tantrums and confusion? Probably. But in the end, all this kid needs is you and me."
Family dinner had gotten on has usual. Mark feeding Sofia while making small talk with her mothers. The week's schedule was discussed, who would pick her up from daycare, who would go to the doctor's appointment, who got the up most pleasure of being in the water for her aqua babies lesson, everything had been set into place.
But Callie and Arizona couldn't stop glancing at each other through out the meal trying to find a way to approach the subject with Mark. They know the earlier they have the discussion with him, the easier it will be but the actual talking just seemed so hard. Finally, Arizona can't take the tension anymore.
"It's bath time, why don't I take Sofia and you two can talk or something." She grabs her daughter and heads to the bathroom before Callie can protest.
"What's going on? You two have been action really weird all evening."
"Ummh! We...ummmh... took some pretty big decisions last week and we feel you should be the first to know." Callie says trying hard to avoid eye contact with her best friend. "We're gonna have another baby."
"And you need me." Mark says a little too enthusiastically.
"Actually, no we don't. You're great with Sofia but we're gonna go the more traditional route of finding an anonymous sperm donor as opposed to a stupid drunken meaningless fu...fling." She says finally looking at him. "And because we're going down that path, it means a lot of things are gonna change. We're gonna start looking at houses, we're not in any hurry we want to find the perfect home so I don't see use moving anytime soon but it's gonna happen."
"What!" Mark squeals in a girly fashion.
"Don't worry, we don't want a long commute so we should still be close enough."
"But this place is great. Why would you move?"
"We're already pretty cramped. Adding another kid is just gonna make this place feel smaller. Plus… We need to put a little distance between you and us."
"But I've been so good. I've really been trying hard to not overstep boundaries, give you guys the space you need. I don't get it."
"You've been great and since we got married, I really feel you've got a newfound respect for our relationship, that's not the problem." Callie pauses knowing Mark will definitely not like this part. "This little family unit that we've created for Sofia is great but it won't work when you add another child who's not yours. It's gonna be confusing to have you around so much."
"You're not taking my kid away."
"That's not our intention at all. We just need to face the fact that this life we've created works now because she's so little but soon there's gonna be school and soccer pratice or piano lessons, we're gonna need a real plan. We've been putting it off for far too long. We have to come up with a custody agreement."
"Woo woo, you're not taking my kid away but you're gonna determine when and where I can see her?"
"We are, all three of us. I don't want to cut you out of her life and I don't want to reduce the amount of time you spend with her. It's just now your time will be spent just the two of you instead of all of us."
"What kind of message does that send to her, if we can't be a family?"
"That's just it Mark. Arizona, Sofia and me we're a family just like Sofia and you are a family. We just need to separate the two. You're gonna love it I guaranty. Aren't you excited at the idea of spending time alone with her. I know you take her for the night once a week but still we all sort of… mingle. You forget her blankie so I go to your place, Arizona comes back from work and wants to say goodnight, you think she has a fever so you come over. You're never truly alone with her but thanks to you giving us space, I sometimes get the whole weekend alone with just my girls and you have not idea how incredible that is. I really think you want that, you just don't know it yet."
"I guess… But what about our Monday family dinners?" One look at Callie and he doesn't need her to answer. "That's over too, right."
"We'll still have you over, you're still gonna be uncle Mark. I really want this kid to have his uncle Mark."
"Of course, I'll be the cool uncle." He says meaning it but then the fears creep back again. "Do I need a lawyer?"
"No, unless you want one but I think we can handle this as adults. Once we're settled on an agreement that fits for all of us, we can ask a lawyer to draw the papers just to be on the safe side but I really think we can work this out."
"So what exactly did you have in mind? Every other weekend? One week each?"
Callie smiles as Arizona and Sofia reappear freshly bathed and dressed for bed. "We don't need to settled this tonight. Why don't you take your daughter, take her to your place and spend sometime with her alone without rushing here every time you think something's wrong."
"Oh, I get it." He says while getting up and taking his daughter. "You two want to use the turkey baster." He winks at Arizona.
"Eww Mark, no." Arizona says punching his arm.
"I overstepped boundaries, right?"
"Right!" They said in unisound.