Title: Find a Brick
Author: A. Windsor
Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PGish
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 one and a half years of law school 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: Standalone AU
Summary: The events of Season Seven, but slightly tweaked. How does the post 7x13 world work out when Callie drunkenly winds up in Alex Karev's bed instead?
Author's Note: Beta'd by the utterly spectacularly weirdy reindeer, roughian. Coached by the ever-patient strandedinaber. Thanks for the great response. I'm very nervous about doing the rewrite.
Callie watches Arizona sleep fitfully, clinging to her. In her dreams, Arizona alternately snuggles close and then pulls away. While normally that would worry her, she files it away for later, because right now, all she can think about is the utter joy of having Arizona touch her again, gently and reverently, the awe echoing in her voice as it repeats in Callie's ears:
"There was a heartbeat." "My baby." "Our baby."
She is here, miraculously here, and if it is only for tonight that she can dream of her future with Arizona and their baby, she wants to live it all in her mind.
Callie wants to be mad that Arizona left, that she came back, that she is still obviously freaking out about the pregnancy. She does. But more than anything, she wants her to stay.
They made love, slow and sweet, and then talked little. Arizona quickly fell asleep, exhausted from the rollercoaster of their last few days and the burden of her residual jetlag.
Despite all the promises whispered in the dark, Callie still feels like she's in limbo. Or more, that she's still sitting on an unsteady scale, and while right now it seems like the balance is about to permanent tip in favor of them being a family- a real family forever- she has no confidence it won't be taken out from under her, that the scales won't crash the other way.
Especially since she's already watched Arizona walk away with her heart.
So she waits and hopes and clings, the sound of the heartbeat in her ears overlaying Arizona's declaration.
She falls asleep praying for her family.
"We can't see each other anymore."
Alex has been having a rough, well, several months.
He's working for the girlfriend of the woman he knocked up, which would be awkward enough if she weren't also his mentor and, he thought, friend. So he's been flocking to the hot OB doc not just because he wanted to get (and has now gotten) into her pants, but because he still got to work in an area he excelled in, without constantly being confronted by Robbins's awkward, nervous, trying-too-hard façade. Really, how do you treat the woman who will be raising the baby you fathered?
So to have Lucy just abruptly break it off like this? Not really the kick in the teeth he is looking for today.
"What? Why?"
"You didn't tell me you're the father of my patient's baby."
"What? Who told you?"
"Then again, I've never seen you at an appointment, and not only do I not date patient-dads, I definitely don't date deadbeat dads."
"That's not my baby."
"Seriously? That's going to be your defense?"
"I mean, yes, biologically, I am the father. But that's Torres's and Robbins's baby, okay?"
Lucy softens.
"I'm like, the sperm donor. Just. On accident. I can't legally sign anything until there's a baby to sign away my rights to, but everything else is settled."
"So you impregnated your boss's lover?"
Alex sighs. "It's a long story."
Callie had wanted to wait to find out the gender of their baby in the delivery room, and Arizona, treading lightly with her beautiful hormone casserole of a girlfriend, had agreed. Except, she was a trained pediatric surgeon; it wasn't her specialty, but she could read a damn ultrasound. By the time Callie is twenty-two weeks along, she really just cannot pretend like she doesn't know anymore.
"I think she'll be spoiled rotten."
"Don't drink that coffee, Calliope; you'll keep her up all night."
"One day she's going to want to know why her Mami thought it was totally normal to live in the basement of the hospital."
One day, over lunch, Callie finally sighs.
"You stopped using male pronouns."
Arizona freezes mid-slurp of her straw, looking up at her girlfriend with an extremely innocent: "Hmm?"
"You know the sex."
"I do know sex, and I am especially fond of these second trimester hormones."
"The sex, Arizona. It's a girl, isn't it? We're having a daughter."
Arizona's face breaks out into a wide, beaming smile. "We're totally having a girl."
It's moments like these that Callie is sure her prayers are being answered.
"Why the hell do you not want to go shopping? It's kinda the best part of expecting, right? The stuff."
"I'm not ready. I can't... I just. Please drop it."
"No," Callie grumps. This is ridiculous. She's been trying for weeks to get Arizona to start getting stuff for the baby, and she adamantly refuses. "This is dumb, Arizona. Let's just go crib shopping."
"I'm in. I'm so in, Calliope, but I... He could still not sign the papers, and I... I don't know if I could handle that. I'm so scared that if I agonize over nursery colors and stroller designs and crib bedding, that I will fall even further in love with her than I am right now, and I'm just going to have her taken from me."
"So, if he doesn't sign the papers, you're just gonna walk away?" Callie demands. She's suddenly lost her appetite for her frozen yogurt. (It's the closest thing to ice cream Arizona allows in the house, even when Callie threatens to withhold sex.)
"What? No!"
"I mean, why not? There'd be nothing tying you here. No obligations, no-."
"Calliope, no. That's not what I meant."
"Then what's the difference? I've been telling you over and over, but you won't hear it. Our little girl is going to know you're her mommy, every hour of the day, and that's not going to change even if Karev doesn't sign that stupid piece of paper."
"The paper's not stupid!"
"It's not the end all, be all, either. Arizona, what's going on?"
"We should get married."
"What?"
"If we gonna have a baby, we should get married," Arizona clarifies, resolutely.
"Is someone holding a shotgun?"
"Calliope."
"That's the least romantic proposal I've ever heard."
"It'll help the adoption!"
"Um, crazy lady? I'm not marrying you for bureaucratic reasons."
"Why not?"
"Because I want you to propose because you are so overwhelmed with your need to spend the rest of your life with me."
"Of course I am."
"You won't even pick out cribs!"
"Fine, we can pick out the freaking crib."
"So not the point! And I also want you to, you know, ask."
"Oh." Arizona takes a deep breath and opens her lips: "Calliope, w-."
Callie leans forward to cover her girlfriend's mouth with her hand.
"Don't you dare. Ugh. Arizona, I am so pissed right now. I hope that couch is comfy."
"Callie."
"We are having this baby in four months. And whether or not we're married, whether or not Karev gives up his rights, you are going to be a mom. So you need to sleep on the lumpy sofa and really think hard and make sure this is what you want."
Callie tries to keep her voice even, her tears at bay. If she breaks down, Arizona will hold her, and she'll forgive her, and right now, she just wants to be mad. The baby, already a little Robbins, has given her speechifying skills, and she wants to stick to her guns.
"Can I at least sleep on Cristina's bed in the nursery?"
"Fine."
Callie disappears into their bedroom and returns with Arizona's toothbrush, tossing it to her.
"I love you. Goodnight."
"I love you, too, Calliope," Arizona whispers after she's gone.
Her resolve to marry Callie is just as strong the next day, but she knows she has to prove herself on the baby front first, and then plan a real, heartfelt proposal.
The first part is easy. She wakes up, crawls into their bed, and says to a half-asleep Calliope:
"I think I need to clear this up. I am in. All in. No matter what, you're right, she's mine. But I am going to worry, a lot, during this, and sometimes I'm going to freak out. A lot. So I'm going to worry every second until he frees her up for me to adopt, yes, because it makes everything more secure. It proves to everybody else, not just us, that I'm her momma. Just like I'm going to worry every day about you developing gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia or a million other things, until you don't. Just like I know exactly what Braxton-Hicks are, but every single one is going to make me bolt, sitcom-dad-style, to the car, often forgetting you."
"Okay..." Callie grins. "I think."
"The point is: I'm gonna worry 'cause I love you two like crazy, and this might not be how I imagined it. Or, mostly, when I imagined it, but I can't wait to meet our daughter. And hit Karev with a brick once he signs those papers."
"Oh," is all Callie can manage, pulling her down on top of her. "You talk too much for this early in the morning."
Arizona laughs against Callie's lips, pulling away long enough to ask: "Can we go baby shopping today?"
The second part of her plan, a real, heartfelt proposal, proves more difficult, because as the bump grows, Arizona finds herself increasingly overcome with her love.
"Marry me," becomes a frequent follow up to, "Pass the milk for my cereal."
"No. Make me some decaf," becomes the standard response.
"Are you really going to do this?"
Alex, startled, nearly drops his instruments, and he pushes the magnifying glasses up on top of his head.
"You just killed the pig," he says, gesturing to the heart on his tray in the skills lab.
"Sorry, Wilbur."
She stands with her hip against the table, but Alex immediately gets up and drags over a stool for her. She's six months along now, definitely showing, a healthy baby bump more than obvious under her scrubs.
"Sit down. Robbins'll kill me even more if you're on your feet."
"You didn't answer my question, Karev," Callie reminds him, though she complies with the order to sit. "I need you to sign those papers. It means... a lot, to Arizona. "
"It's your kid. Both of yours. I'm gonna sign the papers. She doesn't believe that?"
Callie sighs. "She's scared. We're, scared. She's worried that you're doing this for the wrong reasons. That you'll realize that before you sign anything, and we'll spend the rest of our lives like this. Unsure."
"And what do you think?"
Callie grins to soften the blow: "I don't care why the hell you're doing it, as long as you actually do."
Alex allows a soft smile. He likes Torres's straight-forwardness.
"I'm sorry," she continues, "But I said I'd do this with or without you, and I'd much rather do it with her."
"Who wouldn't?" Alex jokes.
"I know I'm not supposed to pressure you. They're your rights; she's, biologically, your daughter."
"It's a girl?" Alex asks.
"Yeah." Her hands fall to her stomach. "Arizona's terrible at keeping secrets. It's just... I mean, I'm okay with her having a relationship with you. I'm okay with her knowing you're her dad. The reason I want you to sign the papers is-."
"I'm not. I'm not her dad," Alex interrupts. "You and Robbins are her parents. Whatever you want me to be, I can be, but not her dad."
"It'll stop Arizona from looking so scared all the time."
"Yeah," Alex nods. "She's... a nervous wreck. Mostly 'cause you won't just say yes when she proposes."
"I'm not going to just get married because I'm pregnant."
"Yeah, I didn't know lesbians could have shotgun weddings."
Callie rolls her eyes.
"That's dumb, though. You're just gonna get married anyway, someday. You're just torturing her cause she left you in an airport."
"I am not!"
"Are too. Just marry her already, would you?"
"Nope. How are... How are you two, doing? She doesn't really like to talk about you with me."
"Can't imagine why," Alex snarks. "I dunno. It's... We didn't do anything wrong; she doesn't really have a right to be upset, but it still feels like... I dunno. Like we hurt her."
Callie nods glumly, rubbing her stomach idly.
"We probably shouldn't think of it as anybody's fault, though, right?" Alex says. "Probably not good for the baby."
"Reading up on child psych, Karev?"
"I have to study hard, because my boss is kinda pissed at me, because when we work on cases together, the whole damn hospital just starts whispering 'baby daddy'."
"Worst kept secret in this place," Callie snorts. "Are you okay with that? We could make someone else up."
"Let 'em talk," Alex shrugs. "I'm just the sperm donor. She has to stop being mad at me someday, and at least she's letting me back on cases."
"Okay. I should get home. I just... Think long and hard about it before you do it, Karev, but please sign those papers."
"I'm not going to marry you just because I'm pregnant," Callie objects to Arizona's thousandth proposal.
"But I'm going to spend the rest of my life desperately in love with you anyway."
A tiny smile breaks through Callie's usual post-proposal stoicism.
"You're getting warmer."
"Torres agree to marry you yet?" Alex asks over Ben Randle's chart.
Slowly but surely, their easy work rapport is returning, and he's working more and more peds cases, somehow setting aside, brick by brick, the wall that has sprung up between them. And he hasn't even had to dodge any of those bricks.
"Nope."
"She's crazy."
Arizona gives him a honest-to-goodness smile, and everything's right again for just a minute.
"Run another round of labs for me, Karev."
"Got it."
He turns to leave, but her voice stops him.
"I'm taking her away this weekend. This little B&B on the coast, to have some time before the baby crazy hits."
"Nice."
"I'm going to do it then, for real."
"Rainbows and sunshine and crap?" Alex grins.
"Exactly."
"She'd be an idiot to say no. Again."
"Jerk," she smirks. "Hey, were you a... fussy baby?"
Alex freezes with his hand on the door. This is the first time they've ever really discussed the baby since their first conversation.
"Yeah," he says tentatively. "I think I was."
"Oh great," Arizona sighs, and Alex leaves her office with a little more pep in his step.
"Marry me."
Callie sighs, looking up from the book in her lap to meet Arizona's eyes. The suburbs are giving way to the mountains outside their car window.
"Can't we just have a nice weekend?"
"No, I had this whole thing planned out at the bed and breakfast. A whole speech and champagne and everything. But Calliope, I can't go another second without-."
"Watch—." Callie gasps.
tbc