Okay, I just have to set this straight. I'm pretty sure I have the best readers and reviewers ever. You guys are super! I'm very thankful for all of you, thank you for being so darn good to me! I just thought I'd thank you all. Hope you guys enjoy! =D
This chapter is written in Arizona's point of view.
Two. Someone Else's Life
"When I'm lost, in your eyes,
I see a way for me."
- Someone Else's Life, Joshua Radin
After spending over twenty four hours in the hospital and numerous visits from our friends we were all finally going home together. We pulled up in front of our building in my jeep around five minutes ago. "Are you sure you can carry everything, I have two hands you know?" She's trying to carry everything herself while I carry Rory in her car seat. I can see the frustration on her face as tries to shut the trunk door.
"No, honey, I got this." She says, grumbling slightly. I can't help but roll my eyes at her being stubborn as always.
"Sure, Calliope, you do that." I chuckle at her. She looks up at me; her cheeks are now blushing and a slight frown on her face. "We and Rory will meet you upstairs." I sneakily take the diaper bag of her shoulder begin walking away before she can protest. I look down at Rory find her with her big brown eyes open spying at me. "You're Mommy is stubborn." I give her a smile and laugh. "Yup, Mommy is so stubborn."
As Rory and I enter the apartment I can't help but let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding; it felt good to be home. I walk further into the apartment I notice the answering machine light is blinking. I put the diaper bag on back of one of the kitchenette chairs and put Rory's car seat on the floor. As I bend down to unbuckle Rory from her car seat I notice she's already sound to the world; what I wouldn't give to be able to know what was running through her little mind. I slowly take her out of the car seat and into my arms before walking to the answering machine and press the button.
"You have two new messages. Message 1." The robotic voice says before a loud squeal escapes from the machine. I look down at Rory whose still sound asleep in my arms, she's definitely going to be a deep sleeper like Calliope used to be. "I hear a have a little niece! I'm going to be at Mom and Dad's so call as soon as you guys get settled in, even if it's really late or well early we don't mind, so we'll know when to get on Skype. We can't wait to see her! Bye guys!"
I can't help but laugh. Just by the message I could tell that Aria was going to have Rory spoiled rotten. Rory was going to be one spoiled kid but she definitely wasn't going to be a spoiled brat that's for sure. I look back down at her face. Her eyes are closed, she looks so peaceful. The noise coming out of the answering machine pulls me out of my thoughts.
"Hi honey, it's Mom. Your father and I forgot to ask earlier if next weekend would be okay for us to come and visit. We're so anxious to see her and we miss you both. Just give us a call back tomorrow. Love you, bye."
At the end of the message Calliope finally enters the room with a huge smile on her face. "I told you I could to it." You can hear the proud just ringing in her voice. She quickly drops everything on the counter before sitting down on the couch.
I can't help but laugh at her, "I never said you couldn't." She motions for me to come over and sit on her lap. I quickly comply. Calliope wraps her arms around me tightly, as if she trying to protect me from some unseen danger. "We haven't done this in a while."
"Well when your wife eight to nine months pregnant it's kind of difficult." Her infamous chuckle fills the room. I give her a look; she knows I'm pretending to be mad. "But now I've a got my tiny beautiful little girl and my absolutely stunning wife, so now we get to do this more often." A wide smile spreads across Calliope's face which automatically causes me smile. She leans in and kisses the top of Rory's head before kissing my cheek.
"Aria and my mom called."
"Oh really, what does Aria want now?" Calliope says sarcastically as she rolls her eyes.
"She wanted us to call when we got settled in so we could Skype with them and show them our little monster." I can't resist the urge to place kisses on Rory's cheeks.
"Well that's not so bad." she chuckles. "I was expecting her to ask if she could buy Rory an extravagant accessory of some sort like a designer playpen or something. I can imagine her buying her some outrageous designer bib. You said your Mom call too, right?"
"Yes, she did. She wanted know if it was okay for her and Dad to come up weekend for a visit. What do you think?" I'm slightly nervous about this; I know that Calliope loves my parents but their visit would cause them to stay at a hotel because there isn't enough room at the apartment. Calliope hates the thought family staying at hotel.
"I think that your parent coming is a great idea." The smile that once spread across her face slowly fades. "Arizona, I know we talked about this but that was a year ago and I think that with Rory finally being here it's more necessary. I think we need to buy a house. Somewhere we can call our home. I hate sending your parents to hotel because we don't have room for them here. I know you like being so close to the hospital so that you can get there faster when you get paged but when Rory gets bigger she's going to need a yard to play and we both want to have more kids and there isn't going to be enough room. And we need,"
I love it when she rambles she's so adorable but I need to stop her before she start freaking out. I stop her by placing my lips on hers and kiss her softly. "Okay, we'll buy a house." I say as I pull away.
"Really?" The smile I love resurfaces.
"Really. We are going to have that big house the swing set in the back yard and a tire swing hanging from a huge tree so our kids can play. We're going to have everything we ever wanted." I give her another to assure her that I'm right.
As I pull away Rory starts crying in my arms, "Hey, baby girl. Don't cry, Momma's gonna get you your bottle while Mommy calls Aunt Aria, okay?" Calliope soothing voice calms her slightly. She kisses my cheek just as I begin to get up out of her lap. "Let's show go show them our little monster."
"Oh my gosh! She is so cute! She looks just like Callie as a baby!" Aria loud voice echoes out of the computer speakers as she holds up a photo of Calliope up to the webcam.
"Awe, she does." I say as I look down at Rory who is in Calliope arms.
"She's beautiful, hija." I look back at the computer screen to find Mr. Torres with tears beginning to form in his eyes.
"Thank you, Daddy. Stop being such a wimp." Calliope laughs quietly.
"Your father's right, she's beautiful. We can't wait until you come down and visit. You'll come as soon as you can right, hija?" Mrs. Torres has a sweet smile on her face hoping we'll visit within the month.
"Of course, Ma, we'll visit whenever we get the time." Calliope voice softens; it always is when she talks to her mother. Even after being with her for almost three years Calliope's relationship with her mother still intrigues me.
"What did you guys name her after? I knew you had come up with quite a few possibilities." I can hear the curiosity in Aria's voice.
"Well, we decided to name her after Ma," Mrs. Torres' face lit up causing the small smile on her face quickly grew. "And her middle name is Carolina, after the USS North Carolina which is the most decorated battleship of World War II, in honour of Arizona's family."
"Well that is a beautiful name." The tears in Mr. Torres' eye are disappeared but you can hear the pride in his voice.
I decided to let Calliope continue to do the talking, "Yes, it is. But we're going to call her Rory for short, because we both know" Calliope's looking at me for a moment before turning back to her father on the computer screen "what it's like growing up with names that are a mouthful. So we just want to give her something short so she can actually say her name." Calliope's chuckle fills the room.
I look at her for a moment before looking back down at Rory; I find her face scrunched up as if she's about to cry. Before I can even say anything a foul smell reaches my nose and Rory beings to cry. "Hey, Calliope. I think we have a situation here."
"Mom, Dad, and Aria we kind of have to go because the little monster here needs a diaper change so we'll talk to you guys again sometime this week, okay?" Calliope says as she slowly hands Rory to me.
"Bye hija! Bye Cal!" is the last words I hear before I walk into Rory's room.
"Okay, let's get this show on the road." A chuckle escapes from Calliope as she hands me a diaper.
I can feel the blush begin to surface on my face. "Uhm, Calliope." I nervously bit my lip; this was going to be embarrassing.
"Seriously, Arizona?" She raised her eyebrow curiously. "You spend almost your entire day with children."
"Cal, I'm not a pediatric nurse, I'm a surgeon. I fix internal problems, play games with them, get them pudding, I don't spend my days changing diapers of newborns."
"You've never changed a diaper before. Well that's something I didn't expect I was going to have to teach you." Places a hand on my arm, and her eyes meet mine, it's only for a moment but it's enough. "Okay, well first you've got to back sure everything you need which we do. Then you take the clean one and you put it under the one she's already wearing."
Calliope continues explaining but I'm already lost. I just smile along and pretend I know exactly what she's talking about. I don't care because just looking into her eyes I know she'll tell me over and over if she has too; I can see all the love and admiration in her eyes that I've always wanted. Every time I'm lost all I have to do is look into her eyes because I know they'll lead me home.
