Title: Twenty-One
Author: A. Windsor
Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13 [if you see the title, you know there's alcohol and likely shenanigans]
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My law degree [:O] could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!
Series: Thing!verse
Summary: It's Thing Three's twenty-first birthday. [February 17-19, 2040]
Author's Note: Another new thing!verse? Has the world come to an end? There is only a brief Calzona appearance in Part 1, so I guess in some ways it is a bit of aMi Vida prequel? Also, this story is my birthday present to roughian ... from 2013. So apparently if you wait long enough, you can cover two birthdays in a row. But happy birthday, bro! I had so much fun revisiting more grown up Things, and I hope it's worth the thirteen months of waiting! Beta'd by my dearest darling girlfriend. Thanks, baby.
When the black limo screeches to a halt alongside the curb, Caroline's first instinct is to jump back three feet. When the door swings open to reveal her goofily grinning older sister, she falls back on her usual instinct of an eye roll.
"Get in, amor," Lena commands.
"What are you doing?" Caroline asks skeptically, hiking her bag up on her shoulder.
"Thing Three, get your ass in the car," Lena repeats, beckoning her in.
"Leni, what-"
Before the younger sister knows it, Lena has sprung from the vehicle and grabbed Caroline's wrist, dragging her forward and then shoving her inside.
Under the multi-colored lights, three pairs of eyes find hers. Each sipping on a tiny bottle of soda, Grey Sloan, Nicky Altman-Tate, and her own baby brother Teo are all staring at her.
"Hey," Nicky greets.
"Hola, Cari," Teo beams.
"Happy early birthday!" Grey says brightly.
"What the hell is going on here?" Caroline asks as the car starts to move.
"Don't worry," Lena grins. "We packed you a bag."
"Why would you do that?"
"We're whisking!" Lena tells her with a pout, as if that should be obvious. "We broke into your dorm and grabbed you a bag because you are coming on a birthday adventure."
"How did you break into my dorm?"
"She knows your RA," Grey tells her matter-of-factly. "Biblically."
"Oh gross," Teo groans as Nick makes a face.
"Oh yeah, you coming to law school at my school is just the best thing ever. Where are we going?" Cari asks, rolling her eyes again.
"Caroline Grace," Lena huffs. "You only turn twenty-one once, and Abuelito gave me the credit card and the jet. So don't ask me so many questions."
Caroline sighs and flops back against her seat, but there's a little smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Because in some ways, Lena coming to U-Dub the year before is the best thing ever.
"I have class tomorrow," Caroline points out.
"I took care of that," Lena dismisses.
"You bang my TAs too?"
"No!" Lena laughs.
"My professors?"
Lena levels a glare at her.
"No. I told them that we had a very important family commitment."
"So you lied."
"No! This is an important family commitment, Caroline."
"Oh okay."
"First things first: we're gonna drop the under-agers off at the hospital where Tiny Dancer's car is, say hi and bye to the moms, and then hit the road."
"You boys aren't coming with?" Caroline asks.
"They do have school," Grey points out.
"Plus, Luis won't let Nicky go to Miami; scared he'll find some other pretty boy to bring home," Teo grins.
"Shut up," mammoth Nicky grumbles good-naturedly, shoving into Teo's shoulder.
"Mateo Oliver! ¡Le dijiste!" [You told her!]
"Oops."
"It's okay, Leni. I figured that out at 'Abuelito'."
"It's gonna be awesome, Cari," Lena smiles genuinely. She jumps, then fumbles in her blazer pocket for her phone. She beams brighter. "It's for you."
Lena unceremoniously presses the phone to the side of Cari's head before she can protest.
"Oh my god, did she do it? Of course she did. Aren't you so excited? Ah! I'm so jealous. Only two-and-a-half months 'til mine. Please come to Boston!"
"Hi, Susie," Caroline grins.
"Happy birthday, you!"
"Well, uh, be safe. Have fun. Call me if you need to be bailed out," Alex Karev says gruffly, leaning against the nurse's station.
"Uncle Alex," Caroline laughs. "Why would I call you from Miami for bail?"
"I dunno. That's like the only thing I'm good for as a godfather."
"Yeah, okay," Caroline smirks, shaking her head.
"I got you a present, but you're not old enough to have it yet."
Caroline laughs. "So when I come back?"
"If you come back. What'd your godmom get you?"
"It hasn't come in the mail yet. And it's not a competition. Besides, Aunt Cristina is still trying to bribe me into med school, so it probably won't be booze."
"Whatever," Alex dismisses. "Yang loves her tequila."
"But I doubt she's shipping it from Boston."
Alex shrugs.
"You better hug her," a familiar voice rings from around the corner. "This is the last you may see her alive."
"I don't know, Callie. Our Care Bear is tough."
Caroline doesn't even bother to turn around, fixing a withering look at Alex and saying:
"They are the most embarrassing."
"I'm not going to let her die," Lena huffs. "I mean, I'm not responsible for anything else, but I will bring her home alive. Promise."
"That one, too," Caroline groan.
"Ay, hermana, ¿vas a bailar con los hombres bien guapos?" Teo chimes in, miming a bit of salsa. [Gonna dance with the handsome guys?]
"Oh god, all of them," Caroline groans. "Why didn't you steal me when I was younger?"
Alex grins. "I'd never be able to send you to Miami."
"Alright, fair enough. Just don't terrorize the juniors this way, okay?"
"You'll have to steal 'em," Alex teases. "Parents have a right to be embarrassing.
"Okay, okay," Lena announces. "Hug, hug. Kiss, kiss. We've got a flight to catch."
"To be fair," Grey chimes in, "it's a private jet that will leave whenever we get there."
Lena gives him a withering look.
"Chop, chop, people!"
"She is a monster," Arizona says as their daughters (and Grey) pile back into the limo and take off for debauchery she doesn't even want to think about.
"Can't imagine where she got that from," Callie asks cheekily. "Pushy, bossy, demanding..."
Arizona narrows her eyes, but fails to rise to the bait, instead casually positing:
"Donor."
Callie guffaws and leans over to kiss her cheek.
"Oh. Okay," she allows with a warm smile.
"Do you think Caroline even wants all of this?" Arizona asks worriedly, for the third or fourth time since Lena told them of her plan.
"She'll have fun," Callie soothes her.
"That's not what I asked," Arizona counters.
"She'll have fun. Maybe it isn't what she would've come up with for herself. But Lena knows her. It won't be too crazy for her. Stop fixating. I know what you're really worried about."
"What's that?"
"Thing Three is twenty-one."
"Not yet!"
"Hours away," Callie laughs.
Arizona looks disgruntled.
"It's okay. We were already old," Callie teases.
"Stop," Arizona grins. "Should we go get our last baby? Before he grows up and leaves us too?"
"Sounds about right. But Teo's going out tonight."
"Oooh. House to ourselves, then?"
Caroline has made the flight between Seattle and Miami what feels like hundreds of times, but it never feels any shorter. Not helping is Lena's insistence that she not be allowed to drink until 12:01am, February 19th, in order to make it more meaningful. Never mind that Caroline has been drinking alcohol for a few years now. At least Lena and Grey are abstaining as well.
For two badasses talking a lot about what crazy partying she is in for, they are currently looking very tame, playing a childishly competitive game of UNO and good-naturedly flirting with the lone flight attendant, who they've convinced to join the game. The flight attendant is pretty, sure, but she's fifteen years their senior, and while it does little to slow those incorrigible flirts down (she's pretty sure that they just don't know how to communicate with other people except via flirting), no one seems to be taking it very seriously.
Which is good, because seducing the woman who is just trying to do her job would be both a tired cliché and the moment Caroline chooses to snap her sister out of her post-Mia-break-up #2, sleep with every woman willing in Seattle, rampage.
Caroline's the observant one, and she knows that while the main motivation behind this trip is her birthday, this trip is also to try to get the last of Lena's crazy out of her system.
"You bastard!" Lena cries as Grey triumphantly lays down his last card, and Emma, the flight attendant, laughs.
"Y'all take this seriously," she notes.
"They take everything seriously. They've been competing for two decades," Caroline speaks up. She sets aside her phone and decides to engage. "Of course, I'm better than both of them, so..."
"Oh-ho! Put your money where your mouth is, Caroline Grace!" Grey demands.
"Yeah, Care Bear. Pruébalo," [Prove it] Lena grins.
Caroline unbuckles and moves into the fourth chair around the table.
"Alright. Bring it."
They land around midnight in Miami, and even though it is February, it's still warm compared to cold and damp Seattle. Waiting on the tarmac is another limo, this one with their cousins ready to whisk them all away. Julia, the older one, two years or so younger than Lena, sits perched irreverently on the trunk of the limo, the bright lights of the airstrip reflecting off her almost comically large earrings.
"Stop being such a stereotype, prima," Lena playfully admonishes as she embraces her.
"I like to be sparkly!" Julia counters.
To her left is her much more reserved younger brother, Lucas, a year behind Caroline and a sophomore business student at Miami. Still dressed in an Oxford and sport coat, Lucas leans against the car, arms crossed over his chest.
"Tan serio, primito," [So serious,] Lena teases, kissing his cheek.
His façade drops then, and he becomes the grinning little boy they grew up with. They can always bring it out in him.
"¡Bienvenido a Miami!" Julia says brightly once they've all hugged and kissed and teased. Julia opens the limo door with a flourish. "And feliz cumple a mi prima favorita." [Welcome to Miami. And happy birthday to my favorite cousin.]
"Hey!" Lena objects playfully, arm slung around Lucas's shoulders as they let the others pile in ahead of them.
Julia settles in next to Caroline, threading her arm through hers and snuggling in tight.
"Little control freak that she is, Lena has planned most of this trip to the minute, but if there's anything you want to do, amor, just let me know, and I'll make it happen. Te prometo." [I promise.]
"Thanks. Are we going to your house or abuelitos'?" Caroline asks as the limo starts its journey, the bright lights of Miami passing into view.
"Abuelitos, claro," Lena speaks up.
"Abuelita is waiting up, but Abuelito said he would see us in the morning, 'cause he's not loco enough to be up past midnight anymore," Lucas laughs.
"'Lita should be in bed, too," Caroline complains. "She doesn't need to be up so late either."
"She's not even my grandma and I know that's never going to happen," Grey chuckles.
"She has to see her chiquitas," Julia agrees.
tbc