Growing Pains

Callie woke up and realized that she was on Arizona's side of the bed, and Arizona wasn't there. She looked over to her side and saw Mark, still fast asleep. It took her a few seconds to remember the events of the night before, but she still could have sworn that she had fallen asleep next to Arizona. Callie got up quickly and quietly and went out to the front room. There, she saw a peaceful looking Arizona fast asleep on the couch. Oh crap. Callie moved over to the couch to wake Arizona, who doesn't have to work this morning, but she never slept passed eight anyways.

"Good morning baby" Callie said as she woke Arizona with a soft kiss. Arizona woke immediately, took in her surroundings and began glaring at Callie.

"I don't like sleeping on the couch Calliope."

"In my defense, you weren't on the couch when I fell asleep."

"Yea, because you weren't kicking me while you were awake!"

"I know that you didn't like that Mark was staying over, but he needed me. He's my person, Arizona."

"I understand that, but why couldn't he need you from the couch?" Arizona began to pout. "You can't just go inviting people into our bed Calliope! For one, it really isn't big enough for three and—"

"Our bed?" Callie raised an eyebrow, seeing her opportunity to both stop getting chastised and bring up a subject that she had been trying to work in for weeks now.

"Unless you're sharing a bed with someone else, Calliope, yes, our bed."

"Arizona, will you move in?"

"Huh?" Arizona was too tired to have fallowed the jump that this conversation had taken.

"Will you move in with me?" Callie repeated with a little more confidence.

"What does that have to do with…" Arizona was still catching up.

"It's our bed, Arizona. Our shower. Our closet. Our kitchen. Please move in."

"Technically, the kitchen's Christina's too, not that she can cook…"

"you're evading"

"I'm processing"

"evading"

"shut up. I just woke up from sleeping on the couch because Mark is your person and you kick in your sleep, so I deserve a little bit of processing time."

"Fine. I'll make you some pancakes. Pancakes that you'd get every morning if you moved in…"

"Are you sure?" Arizona asked a few minutes later while Callie was cooking away at the stove.

"Of course I'm sure, why wouldn't I be?"

"Did you talk to Christina about it?"

"Yes, she didn't care much since you spend so much time here anyway. What are you thinking?"

"So you've thought about this?"

"Yea, I've been looking for the right moment to bring it up for weeks." Callie couldn't take her questions being ignored anymore. She flipped the pancakes on the griddle and walked back over to Arizona.

"Ari, what's in your head?"

"I haven't met your mother." Arizona responds after a pause.

"What?" Of all the answers Callie had come up with in her head, this was certainly not one of them.

"I've never met your mother. I haven't really met your family."

"Wait, so you want to meet my family before we move in together?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Moving in is a big step. I know what step comes after the moving in step. I want to meet your mother before that step."

"Arizona Robbins, are you saying you want to—"

"Don't jinx it!" Arizona said loudly and flashed her dimples at Callie.

"Well, then I supposed we better go to the chief to get a couple days off soon."

"Soon?"

"I'd rather not put this off." Callie says as she wiggles her eyebrows.

Mark enters the room looking disheveled.

"Do I smell pancakes?" Mark says groggily.

"Yea, we've got blueberry, chocolate chip, banana, plain, and squash."

"Squash pancakes?" Mark asks giving Callie a funny look.

"I was preoccupied" Callie answered shortly.

"What the hell are you doing with squash in February anyway?"

"I'm pretty sure we didn't buy it in February…" Callie said sheepishly as she tried to remember the last time she cleaned out the fridge. Then taking the plate of squash pancakes and throwing them away.

"I'll go with the banana" Callie sends him a stack of banana pancakes and hands Arizona the blueberry ones, because she doesn't even need to ask.

A groggy Christina appears from her bedroom and without a word claims the plate of chocolate chip pancakes, sits down and puts a thick coating of maple syrup on them.

Callie then takes the large stack of plain pancakes and separates them on to two plates, just as Owen walks in the door from his morning run.

"Mmm…pancakes" He grabs his plate and eats them dry.

They sit and eat their pancakes while discussing surgery and other mundane things. Only Owen is completely awake, but he doesn't talk much in the first place.

Suddenly the group is interrupted by frantic knocking on the door. Callie gets up to open it and a disheveled and angry looking Little Grey storms into the room with daggered eyes looking at Mark.

"You don't get to do this! You don't get to ignore me; you don't get to blame this all on me. Yes, I slept with Alex because I was upset and drunk, very, very drunk. You slept with Addison! Addison, your ex-girlfriend. It meant more than sex! And you slept with her more than once. What, do you get to sleep around just because you used to be the biggest man whore in the state!?!"

"Yes" Is all Mark answers.

"What the hell does 'yes' mean?"

"Yes, I get to sleep around when you don't because you're Lexie. You're sweet and kind and you can still count the number of people you've slept with. It's not like you."

"What? So I don't make mistakes? Mark, I make mistakes. All the time. It happens. I'm human. I need you to understand that I can't be a grandmother at 24 and I don't think that Sloan wants to be a mother."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sloan didn't come here for a father, she came here for a place to crash and some money. It was never meant to be long term to her. Maybe you should ask her what she wants before you start planning her life and my life by yourself?"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask…" Mark said sheepishly. Callie goes to the stove to pour a couple more pancakes with cinnamon batter for Lexie and put them down at her seat.

------------------------------------------------That Afternoon-------------------------------------------------

"Hey, so are you going to talk to the chief about getting a few days off to visit your family today?"

"Yea, I'll ask him in between my two surgeries. I'll see you here when you get off?"

"Sure! I'll rent a movie and we can sleep in tomorrow since we're both off."

"Great, And Arizona…"

"What?"

"No Shrek."

"But—"

"Nothing that's a cartoon or has the Disney stamp on it"

"Calliope what kind of movie am I supposed to get, then?"

"A grown up movie. Horror, action, I'd even settle for a romantic comedy, just no Disney."

"Fine, but no on-call room sex for you."

"We'll see" Callie mutters as they walk out of the apartment towards the Hospital.

As soon as they got there, they went to check on their patients and Callie had her old man in need of a hip replacement prepped for surgery. Callie got it done pretty quickly and figured that it'd be a good time to talk to the chief.

"Hey chief. I was wondering if Dr. Robbins and I could get a couple days off in the next couple weeks?" Callie asked confident as ever.

"I'll try and see what I can do, but the hospitals been a bit of a mad house. What's it for anyway?"

"Arizona wants to meet my mother" Callie answered a little crisply.

"Ah, sounds like fun. I'll try to get you both a few days off in the middle of next week, Torres."

Callie went off to tell Arizona the good news, but ran in to Mark before she got to her.

"Hey Callie, where's the fire?" Mark was back to being in an obnoxiously good mood, not that Callie minded, but she didn't want to find herself telling Mark before she got to Arizona.

"Love to stay and chat, but I've got to find Arizona!" Callie said quickly as she continued her run to the pediatric wing.

"Hey, Arizona I—" Callie had began speaking as she rounded her head to the attendings lounge a nurse had pointed her towards to find Arizona talking to a woman Callie had never met.

"Hey Calliope. This is my sister-in-law Jamie and her daughter Charlie." Callie paused as she began to recognize the woman and the little girl she hadn't noticed at first from a picture Callie had seen at Arizona's apartment.

"Hi Jamie, it's nice to meet you. And you too Charlie." Callie says, trying to wipe the shock off her face and put a smile on for Arizona's niece. Arizona doesn't talk much in depth about the family her brother left behind; it's still too painful for her to think about what he's missing. Callie had heard a few stories from when Charlie was a baby and it was clear that Arizona adored her little niece.

"What's up?" Callie asked Arizona, putting a quizzical look on her face. Arizona hadn't mentioned that her family was coming to visit.

"Jamie and I are going to go get lunch. Could you do me a favor and take Charlie down to the daycare center?" Arizona asked her, but with a look in her eyes that said they would talk later.

"Um, sure. Hey Charlie, you want to come with me, so your mommy and aunty Arizona can talk?" Charlie took Callie's hand and Callie shot a quick smile at Jamie and Arizona before heading down to the daycare center.

"So Charlie, what's your favorite color?" Callie tried to get to know the kid, but there was no response. Charlie wouldn't say a word. Callie decided that she had some time before her next surgery and figured she could get some charting done with Charlie in the attendings lounge. Charlie seemed like a shy kid and Callie didn't want to leave her with a ton of shouting kids for too long. Callie couldn't help but be curious too. It was hard to think that this quiet little thing was related to Arizona. Well, except for the blonde hair and dimples. Callie scrounged up some paper and crayons and gave them to Charlie so that she wouldn't be bored.

"Did you know my daddy?" Charlie suddenly asks.

"No, I didn't, but I've heard a lot about him." The funny thing about Arizona was that the hardest thing about her brother's death wasn't remembering him at all; it was seeing all the things he's missing.

Mark and Owen walked into the lounge right after that and Callie was hoping they wouldn't notice the little girl. No such luck.

"Who's the kid Torres?" Mark asks with a snicker on his face.

"She's Arizona's niece" Callie answered, but she was distracted by the look on Owen's face. Charlie looked up from her coloring and her face lit up as soon as she saw Owen.

"Uncle Oh-Oh!" She shouted enthusiastically. Owen's face adorned a look of pure shock.

"Charlie?" He said, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. This must mean that Scooter's sister was Arizona. He should have realized…