Alright, so I got a bunch of really sweet comments saying how much ya'll are loving this fic, and I do believe I've thanked everyone but I'm gonna comment here on two, cause one does need to be heard by all and it was made by a PM, and the other was posted anonymously. So, for my reader, Jade: Ashleigh isn't 16, she's a few days shy of 20; Arizona was 16 when Ashleigh was born. And for the PM: I read that Kaley Cuoco will be a guest star on the season finale, but wouldn't say who her character would be. So, in my mind, Kaley Cuoco would be playing Ashleigh.
Anyways, here's the second bit, and in the next chapter family will start to make their appearances known. I'm gonna change it up for the sister we actually know about, but for the two brothers I've written for Callie, I'm not totally happy with how the oldest turned out, but I'm not going to change it because it will serve for later in the story.
Wow, who knew that it would take so long to recover from finals and graduation celebration? That's right, yours truly is officially a college graduate, now I just need to figure out what to do, and maybe go see that new movie 'Post Grad' while I'm at it, maybe it will give me some ideas.
Okay, so normally I'm not one to delete and repost chapters, but after watching the finale, I thought up a slightly different story than the one I had and one that I like more. This was going to be the first story I've written that didn't have a character in the military, but after hearing that Arizona had a brother that died in Iraq, I decided to make some changes. Plus it gave me a much cooler way to explain how she came to have the name Arizona. Most have been stating that she was conceived in the state, and I admit that I was going to use that as well – and that was the line I used in Sisters Grace – but I decided to go for something different. And there will be a few other minor changes, but it won't be long, and I should have the next chapter up by tomorrow. It was gonna be up tonight, but I've got a funeral to attend to.
The following morning, Callie reaches out, seeking the embrace of the blonde in her sleep, finding purchase; wrapping her arm around Arizona's waist and pulling her closer. Arizona shifts in her sleep but doesn't wake. Burying her nose in the blonde's neck Callie allows herself to drift back into unconsciousness.
She wakes sometime later to an empty bed. Sitting up she hears the shower turn off, rubbing her eyes she turns to see Arizona emerge from her bathroom wrapped in a towel. When she sees that Callie is up, she smiles, sitting on the bed to give the woman a kiss.
"Morning."
"Good morning." Callie smiles broadly, returning the kiss. "So, when does Ashleigh arrive in Seattle?"
"Friday, I think her flight gets in around noon."
"I'm on call until noon."
"I know, don't worry. She's only in town a few days, she'll be leaving Sunday night."
"She's flying 6,000 miles for three days?"
"Our birthday is a big deal. And that's a story that will take a bit longer to tell."
"Okay. What time do you have to be at work?"
"Not until nine." Callie glances at the clock and sees that they still have three hours before they have to be in.
"Is that enough time to tell me why she goes to school in Ireland?"
"That's enough time for the Cliff Notes version. The full story requires visual aids that I don't have with me. So why don't you shower and get dressed while I make breakfast and I'll tell you the story while we're eating."
"Deal." Callie gives her a quick kiss before heading into the bathroom, while Arizona pulls on her clothes from last night.
Exiting her bedroom, Callie follows the scent of pancakes, bacon and coffee to the kitchen, where she finds Arizona setting the table for two.
"Wow." Callie stops to take in the sight, "Are you trying to butter me up for something? Because you really don't have to."
"No, I'm not trying to 'butter you up', I just enjoy cooking breakfast. When Ashleigh was younger, while I was attending medical school, I did my student rotations at night, and I usually got home just as she was waking up, so breakfast was the one time of the day that we were guaranteed 30 uninterrupted minutes together."
"That's sweet." At Arizona's insistence, Callie sits down and helps herself to a cup of coffee while Arizona finishes bringing everything to the table. Once she is seated, the pair fill their plates with food and glasses with juice before Callie starts the conversation.
"So, what kind of engineering is Ashleigh studying?"
"Structural." Arizona gets up to retrieve the scrapbook from last night. Flipping to the last photo, she taps the image. "This was taken last summer, I went to visit her. That building was the 'family church', as it were. Almost every generation of my family has gotten married in it. When you turn 12, we'd get taken there and told the story of the building's history in the family. The church is over 400 years old. The summer I took Ashleigh out there, there was a fire in the rectory that destroyed the building.
"It was years before the county decided on an architect and artist to rebuild it, because they wanted to be as original as possible. Hundreds of companies competed for the chance, and in the end, the county decided on a team of university students to do the rebuild, with the supervision of a company that was headed by alumnus of the university."
"Ashleigh." Callie figures out who one of the students was.
"And her best friend. They sat down together and wrote out the rebuild proposal as part of their entrance essay for school. Ashleigh's the engineer, Patrick is the artist. To ensure that they stuck it out together, they chose to minor in the other's major, so they would have a hand in every part of it together."
"And will they be the next generation of Robbins to get married there?"
"No." Arizona is resolute in her answer. Callie raises her eyebrows in silent question. "But yes, Ashleigh does want to get married there. But first she'll be finishing school, much to my father's dismay."
"Why?"
"He's not against women in the workforce, but he's old-fashioned enough to believe that a household should compose of a mother and father with children."
"So how would he react to us?"
"It took him awhile to get used to me. But it was more how he was raised than how he felt. Even if you don't agree with the Catholic teachings, it's hard to break away from what you were raised to believe. His mother, on the other hand, hasn't spoken to him since he told her that he accepted me. Which is sad, because they were really close before.
"Now that we know how your dad would react, what about the rest of your family?" Arizona changes the subject.
"I don't know. They'll have to find out for themselves why my father cut me off, because there's no way he'll swallow his pride long enough to tell them, even my mother."
"And how do you think they'll react?"
"My mom, I don't know. I think my brother's will be okay with it though. It's been awhile since they've gotten to play the big brother card. You know: 'Break her heart and we'll break your neck'."
"I hope they won't go that far with a woman."
"They'll threaten, I promise you that. As for them accepting it…I don't know, but they'll be more open then my father was. And my sister and I have always been really close before this, so I'm hoping that there's a good excuse for why she's ignoring me now."
"How many brothers do you have?"
"Two, one older and one younger. What about you? Do you have any siblings?" Arizona chuckles softly, with a slightly sarcastic undertone.
"Yeah, I've got a few."
"Care to elaborate? How many?"
"One older brother, one younger brother and one younger sister."
"Do all of you have state names?"
"No, but technically we weren't named after states."
"Care to explain?"
"I thought we were supposed to be talking about Ashleigh?"
"We were, but then you mentioned my family, thereby allowing the subject change."
"Alright. There's Tennessee, but everyone calls him Tommy, he's 37, then there's me, then there's Nevada, who's 34, and finally Ford, who is six years younger than Nevada."
"Thirty-seven, 36, and 34, was that planned?"
"Yes, they wanted more, but there were complications with Nevada and mom was told she couldn't have more kids, but then Ford came along."
"Is your mother a saint or your father a dictator?" Callie's smile let's Arizona know that she's joking.
"A little bit of both."
"What do they do?"
"Tommy is a lawyer, Nevada is a psychiatrist and Ford's a firefighter." Further conversation is halted when they hear a lock in the door and turn to see Christina enter, one hand over her eyes.
"Something wrong, Christina?" Callie questions her. Christina slowly separates her fingers to take in the living area. Satisfied with what she sees, she drops her hand.
"Just checking that everything's clean. Walking in to a trail of clothes to your bedroom once was bad enough. Good morning, Dr. Robbins."
"Good morning and you can call me Arizona."
"Whatever." Christina heads to her room to change. Callie looks to the clock and notices that they've only got half an hour to get to work.
"Well, good thing I live so close to the hospital." She picks up her plate and begins to clear the table.
"How did you and Christina come to be roommates? You two just seem so different."
"She's the least perky one in the hospital. Think, with Izzie I'd be falling asleep and waking up to the smell of baked goods; with Karev there'd probably be weights and other exercise crap around for me to break a leg on; Meredith would make me seem perkier than you; and George… well, enough said."
"Point taken. Come on."