Part 4

"When is Mama coming back?"

"Next weekend Sofia, remember we told you in the car on the way to the airport?"

Sofia narrowed her eyes and used the cap on her marker to push tiny indentations in her page. "And then how long is she staying for?"

"I'm not sure honey, maybe until Tuesday or Wednesday."

"Why did you tell her to go back to New York?"

Arizona shook her head slowly. "Mama lives in New York, she has to go to work."

"She could just go to work here, if you stop telling her to leave."

"Sofia, I didn't tell Mama to leave, it's not my decision."

"That's just a lie, you say I shouldn't lie but you get to."

Holding her cutlery stationary in the air, Arizona stared at her daughter. It was exhausting weathering the unrelenting emotional swings of a child. "Tell me what I've lied about, explain that to me."

"Well, she wouldn't have left unless you asked her to. So, you must be lying."

"Oh Sofia, I wish that things were that simple, but they're just not. Mama has commitments in New York, it wouldn't matter if you want her to stay or not. Maybe one day she'll move home but right now, this is just the way it is."

Sofia audibly hymphed and Arizona assumed her explanation was akin to a simple, because I said so. Hardly tolerable to their spirited daughter, with all of her mama's intelligence and all of her mom's perpetuity for critical analysis.

"Well, it's Friday night, do you want to choose something for dinner?" Arizona asked, glancing over to see Sofia staring out the window, hands folded on the table.

"Mama's burrito bowl; but you can't make it."

"Sofia," Arizona stated calmly but with a stern tone, "I don't appreciate rudeness and I've tolerated enough. It's time to stop."

"Fine, I want nachos then. Even I can make them."

"Good," Arizona responded, "then you are cooking."

Sofia snapped her head around to look at Arizona, unsure if she was kidding or not. There was no smile or cheeky wink, just Arizona's eyes fixed on an article in her hand. "Sorry," Sofia mumbled, "for being rude."

Arizona nodded slowly. "I'll help with the shredded chicken then," she conceded softly. Neither of them spoke again until they were in the kitchen over twenty minutes later.

XXX

"Hi Callie," Arizona said, placing her full wine glass on her bedside table and sliding on to her bed with the phone held between her ear and shoulder.

"Hey, you are there. I almost expected your voicemail."

"Oh I couldn't find my phone, I think Sofia was playing games on it before. I found it down the side of the sofa."

"How's your night been?"

Arizona sighed, only expletives came to mind. "Exhausting."

She heard Callie swallow heavily on the other end of the line; maybe she had a bottle of wine on hand as well. "Work?"

"No. Nope. Work is easy."

"Ohhhh," Callie softly answered. "Sofia?"

'Everything is such a battle."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault," Arizona said bluntly.

"Can I help? Or would you rather a quiet night on your own watching a trashy movie?"

"No, I'd rather be chatting with you, I'm just in a crappy mood. Maybe fill me in on your day?"

Callie groaned from the other end of the line. "I don't think that will cheer either of us up and I did intend on not burdening you with my work dramas but I can certainly rant if that would help."

Arizona was taken aback slightly, there were so many parts of Callie's current life that she had no idea about. "You have work dramas?"

She heard Callie scoff. "A never-ending stream of work dramas; you sure you want to hear about work on your night off?"

"Of course I do."

"Okay, well, keep note as I'm likely to ask for advice at some point. Before I'm fired hopefully." Callie laughed lightly. "Well, to start, my boss, the Chief of Surgery is a personality disordered, micro managing control freak. And that's me using my polite words."

"Ooooo," Arizona slowly articulated. "I can imagine how well you get along then."

"I'm enemy number one. And trust me, there is a long line of enemies. Her only ally is one of the general surgeons, who I think is just a game playing lunatic who loves a bit of workplace drama. Psychopath probably. Anyway, the Chief has denied every request I have ever made to do something advanced. She will only allow textbook surgeries, so we're talking major long term deficits for patients because she won't permit any surgery that she has not performed or observed herself."

"Are you kidding me? What's her specialty? She can't have performed every surgery, that is nuts!"

"Yup, I hear you. But she sits in on surgeries all day, particularly mine. I think I have done about three surgeries since I've been here that she hasn't been in on, and that was only because she had someone else in her firing line those days."

"And how many times have you snapped at her?"

Callie laughed. "Lost count, for sure. And I pay the price, not at the time of course, she's more calculated than that. But take today for example, I'm repairing a tib fib fracture, nothing major, really simple couple of screw insertions. She's standing behind me, watching, silent and I'm thinking, wow, I'm actually going to get through this without being called a name or undermined and she suddenly screams – STOP! You should have seen my reaction, and every other person in the room. The Anaesthetist jumped off his chair and my scrub nurse knocked an entire tray. I'm ready to duck, as if there's some crazed person at the door about to kill us all. But no, she just then calmly tells me to step back and that she will be closing. So, she closes the kid's leg and then thanks everyone in the room and wanders out. What the hell?"

"Oh my God, she can't do that. My anxiety levels are crazy just hearing that story."

"It was nuts, I look up and the poor, softly spoken scrub nurse is crying and apologising over and over. And then she quit. On the spot, like twenty others have just this year."

"You should too, you can't work like that. You're a legend in the OR, all your talent and skills are just being wasted. And you can't go to work everyday when that is what you get. Just resign."

"Oh I will," Callie said, though her voice lost some of it's energy. "I'm just waiting, I don't want to quit and then get another job here. I'm hoping…wanting or something, to get my old job back. Maybe, if things work out between us. But not yet, I don't want to rush or force anything just because of work."

"That makes sense," Arizona replied quietly, "and thank you; for not wanting to fast track whatever is happening with us. That's actually really, really nice. Particularly when work is so horrendous for you."

Callie made an unidentified noise, seemingly dismissive of Arizona's gratitude and compliment. "I miss you a lot, you know. It was so relaxing being back around you."

Arizona took three consecutives gulps from her wine and heard Callie chuckle softly.

"Sorry Arizona, I don't mean to put you on the spot. You don't need to say a thing, but I want to be honest and open and all of that. I know that you probably still hate the phone and long distance."

"I do," Arizona said softly. "And talking was never my strong point at the best of times."

"Well, about some things anyway. You were always great at talking about your surgery success stories, the kids you fixed when no one else could."

Swallowing heavily, Arizona shrugged to her empty room. Time was meant to bring character improvements, not make her deficits even more problematic. Was it even possible that she was less communicative than ever? She had once been so confident; so, cocky. But what about the substance; what about the things that connect people? "Did I ever?" she blurted out, a little louder than she intended. "I mean, did I ever communicate, Call? Even when we first got together?"

"Of course, Arizona. Of course you did, I'm not criticising."

"I meant it as a genuine question, I do want to know. When I was like ten or eleven, I had been friends with this kid, Jake for almost a year. When we went back to school after the summer, he asked what I had gotten up to. Did I go to summer camp or what. I said that I just hung out with my brother, we went camping and built forts and stuff. I can still see the look on his face, so confused. He didn't know I even had a brother."

"I didn't know you had a brother either, until you talked about him when I was having my meltdown about George joining the army."

"Yeah," Arizona said softly, "you never asked before."

"I never asked," Callie confirmed. "Sometimes it's hard to know what to ask I think, how do you ask about something that you don't know exists? Do you know what I mean?"

"People aren't that interested in detail though."

"Ummm…they kind of are, Arizona," Callie said, laughing. "I am. And you are, you're great at getting people to talk, asking the right questions and listening. I used to think that you lost your words sometimes, that they disappeared when it was important. That's why it used to either come out in a big rush or a crisis or not at all. But I could be wrong, that's just what I guessed."

"Hmmm," Arizona murmured, "lost words. Probably true."

"See, they're gone right?"

Arizona laughed. "Fine, you still know me extremely well."

"Tell me something…tell me something super important…"

Anxiety rumbled through Arizona's abdomen and constricted her airway; she took another gulp of her wine. "Something important? Like what? My grocery list for Sunday?"

"Ha ha, yes, grocery lists are just so important."

"You're just putting me on the spot, I can't just come up with something, it feels weird."

"Mmmm mmm."

Arizona could almost see Callie's sly smile through the phone. "Come here next week and let me lie in your arms on my bed and I'll find my awol words while I'm all secure and safe."

"Check you out, I'm very impressed, Arizona."

"Are you teasing me?"

Callie laughed. "A little, but I am impressed that I can still make you feel safe; that gives me hope."

"Always."

"I can't wait to see you again."

"Me too, me too."

XXX

"Sofia Torres!" Arizona yelled just before Sofia's door was slammed closed inches from her face. The frame shuddered and the adjacent wall vibrated. Opening the door, Arizona stepped inside and promptly tripped over Sofia school bag, taking three unsteady, toppling steps before falling heavily into the closet door. Pain tore through her knee and down the side of her calf, and she took a sharp intake of air before steadying and walking towards the bed. Sofia was lying on her stomach, arms wrapped around her pillow where her face was buried. She cried heavily. "God help you if you don't sit up and look at me right now."

There was something effective in the urgency of Arizona's voice because Sofia pulled her knees up under her and raised her body, chin hanging down to her chest. Her shoulders shuddered, she had been crying for ten straight minutes in the car as Arizona fumed.

"Suspended," Arizona stated, placing a palm on Sofia's desk to take weight off her still attached but now clearly injured leg. She swallowed and shook her head to the wall. "You looked your teacher in the eye and you said screw you. This is after you tore your math exam in half and refused to take the test. Have I summarised this correctly?"

Sofia shrugged.

"Oh my God, Sofia. You are testing my patience; three days in elementary school. You are suspended for three damn days. For a test that you were more than prepared for, that we had practised, and you are at least two years ahead of. You better start talking."

"You're too angry," Sofia whispered from behind her hand where she chewed on her fingertips.

"You haven't even seen the start of angry," Arizona responded, somewhat unfiltered and irrationally as she forced a fist down on the desk.

She watched Sofia's shoulders curve further and her body fold in. "I want Mama."

"Well Mama isn't freakin' here. I am!"

"Please stop yelling, I didn't mean to do it!"

"You didn't mean to tear up your test or swear at your teacher? Or both? Which is it, Sofia?" Again, Sofia shrugged, inching her hand under her pillow. "We have been way too soft on you; do you have any idea what would have happened to your Mama or I if we had pulled this kind of a stunt when we were your age? If you think for a moment that this is okay and that you can make up some excuse about not meaning to do it, you are in for a big shock."

Arizona shook her head again and exhaled heavily, control wavering. The stabbing pain in her knee was agonising and Sofia was suddenly holding a phone to her ear. "I didn't mean to swear at her," she said to Arizona, her face crumbling. "I'm sorry."

"Give me the phone, Sofia."

"I just want to talk to Mama, please?" Sofia's fire was gone and a little girl remained. "Mama," she cried. "Can you come please? Please? Mom is angry at me and she's going to hit me and…"

"Hit you? I am not going to hit you Sofia, for goodness sake. Tell Mama what you have done and then give me the phone." Arizona spoke loudly, ensuring that Callie would hear her.

"I got suspended." Sofia didn't wait for a response, handing the phone out for Arizona.

Arizona's only thought was that at least she didn't throw it at her. "You will not leave this room until I come back, you hear me?" Sofia nodded and was lying back down on her bed before Arizona reached the door.

"Suspended?" Callie said, voice high and screeching through the phone.

"Hang on," Arizona muttered, limping her way across the house to her bedroom and closing the door. Callie kept muttering suspended into her ear and all Arizona could focus on was getting to the side of her bed and sitting down. The second she sat down, Arizona burst into tears, covering her eyes as she sobbed into the phone.

"Arizona," Callie said softly after a minute, "It's alright."

"Except it's not is it?" Arizona muttered, wiping at her eyes and nose. She reached to her bedside for a tissue. "I walked into that school after getting their message, late of course because I was stuck in surgery and didn't even know. And they just look at me as if it explains everything."

"What the hell did she do?"

"She tore up a test, that she was more than able to do. And then apparently, when the teacher asked her what was wrong and offered her to sit it again, she crossed her arms and said screw you and walked out of the school grounds. They had to run after her. When has she even heard those words anyway?"

"What? That doesn't make any sense?"

"Well, I would have asked her slightly more calmly if she hadn't gotten home and slammed the door so hard that a photo fell off the wall."

"I'm still back at her tearing up the test."

"And then the little brat left her school bag directly in her doorway so that I tripped over it and now I've torn something in my knee."

"There has to be something more to this. I mean, she's been a nightmare, I get that. But at school? No way." Arizona sighed. "And your knee, crap. I'll check it when I get there, I'm just bringing my flight forward. I'll go straight to the airport now, There's a transfer fee to pay online and then I'll have to provide my left kidney probably, knowing airlines."

"Oh wait, Callie, you don't need to do that. I sound overwhelmed and irrational, but I can do this. I can manage this."

"We can. I'm done with Sofia's behaviours, it's gone on long enough. We are going to be a united front and she is going to have the most boring three days of her young life. Are you sure the school didn't say anything else? She hadn't been having problems with the other kids or anything else?"

"Nothing, just that it was really sudden and out of the blue. They said she's been quiet, but thought that it was just her personality and from changing schools. They did say that she seems bored often and they give her some extra work to fill in time – which they probably should have talked to us about. I mean she could have gone up a grade given she changed schools anyway."

"Yuck, I used to pretend to be slower when I was her age so that I didn't get extra work and so my friends didn't think I was…uncool or whatever they say these days."

"I did my homework when I finished so that I didn't have to do it at home. Tim and I would always be outside after school, being unheard and building something that probably could have given us head injuries."

"Hmmm," Callie said, "so let's be grateful Sofia isn't like you?" She laughed and Arizona couldn't help but join in, sniffles subsiding.

"Are you really changing your flight? You were going to be here tomorrow night anyway."

"Yup, I will arrive late, about ten past eleven, your time by the look of it. I'll catch a cab to your place but shouldn't take too long, I'll just throw some carry on into a bag."

Arizona audibly sighed, she felt incredibly relieved. She suddenly hated solo parenting.

"Just give her dinner and send her to bed, maybe don't tell her that I'm coming and we can figure out what we're going to do."

"Yeah, I think that's a good plan for tonight. Besides, I may actually hit her if she talks back to me one more time."

Callie laughed. "And risk hurting those surgeon hands?"

"The school is probably already calling child protection on me, may as well give them something to investigate," Arizona added, though her voice was lighter than her words indicated.

"Breathe. Take some ibuprofen for the knee. Pour a wine. Give Sofia canned spaghetti for dinner. Turn the tv on and put some ice on your knee and I'll be there in about eight hours."

"Anything else on that list?" Arizona asked, wincing as she stretched her knee out in front of her.

"Yeah, tell our kid that I'm really disappointed in her."

"Thanks Callie."

"For co-parenting? Yeah, totally worthy of your gratitude."

"Text me when you land."

"Sure, I better run and grab a cab or I'll miss the flight. I'll see you soon."

"Bye."

Arizona dropped the phone to her side and hung her head, releasing a few more silent cries before wiping her face. She gingerly rose to her feet and limped to her adjoining bathroom, she knew she had actually done some damage to her knee, ligaments maybe or partially torn muscle from bone. As if walking wasn't challenging enough. Opening a small bottle she chased two pills with a handful of water from the faucet before washing her face. She changed slowly, replacing her blouse with a casual tee shirt which hung loose over her jeans.

It took her almost ten minutes to finally enter Sofia's room, to find her sitting on her bed against the wall, eyes wide and face tear stained. When Arizona instructed her out to shower and have an early dinner, she nodded slowly before standing timidly in front of Arizona.

Placing two fingers under her chin, Arizona pressed her lips together and sighed. "I'm angry at you, Sofia. I'm really angry. I love you, but that doesn't make this okay. You are going to go to bed tonight and when you get up tomorrow, you are going to do a few things. You are going to explain your behaviour and what the consequences should be. You are going to talk to me and we, we are going to make some big changes. This is it, Sofia. This is it."

"Okay," she whispered, and took two steps to press her face into Arizona's abdomen, little arms reaching around her back.

Arizona hugged her back, bending to press a kiss to the top of her head. "Shower time," she said after a few moments, pointing Sofia to her pyjamas, folded neatly over the back of her desk chair. "I'll have dinner ready for you when you get out and then it's bedtime. You can read until later but no technology tonight."

"Okay Mom."

"Okay, Sof."

XXX

By the time Callie was knocking softly on her front door, Arizona had consumed almost a full bottle of wine and a dinner of cheese and crackers. She had gotten up only a couple of times, to check on Sofia and to place some fresh towels in the guest room for Callie. She had moved from angry to worried and ran about a million scenarios through her head as to the cause of her daughter's behaviour.

Greeting Callie with a tight hug, she felt tears fill her eyes and tried to blink them away. They would have been noticeable of course, but Callie simply smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "There was no police tape outside and there seems to be no evidence of blood so…everyone is still alive?"

Arizona rolled her eyes and nodded, using the furniture to assist her walking. "Sound asleep on last check."

"Good. How are you?"

"Fine," Arizona responded automatically. "How was your flight?"

"Fine," Callie said, widely smiling when Arizona looked at her. "How are you?" she asked again.

"Sore," Arizona conceded, "and tired."

"It's late for you," Callie said, nodding. "And have you iced that?" she asked, indicating towards Arizona's leg.

"Yeah, I had some on before. It just hurts when I move it."

"This is why you're not an orthopaedic surgeon – terrible assessment."

Arizona softly laughed. "Come through? I really need to lie down put both of my legs out of their misery."

"Yeah, absolutely. I'll just throw my bag in the other room." Arizona was sitting on the side of her bed removing her prosthetic when Callie returned, noticeably still with her handbag over her shoulder. She placed it on the nightstand and crouched in front of Arizona. "You want me to check your knee?"

Arizona nodded. "Yeah, I'll just change my jeans with pyjamas for maximum miserable effect," she said, drawing a pair of pyjama pants out from under her pillow. "So the flight was really fine?"

"Yup, same as always," Callie said, standing in front of Arizona as she changed. "I did get dinner tonight which was a pleasant change, I think their window for serving meals is isolated to about an hour a day. I swear I remember getting a meal on just about every flight not that long ago. Anyway, I tried to think about what we could do about Sofia but didn't really have an epiphany. I figure that can be tomorrow's problem now."

"She knows she has some explaining to do in the morning. I think we let her talk and see where we get to."

Callie nodded, crouching in front of Arizona and pushing the leg of her pants up around her thigh. A swollen knee joint was exposed and Callie softly pressed at the stretched skin. "That is really swollen, you didn't hear any breaks or snaps?"

"Nah, not at all."

"No rubber band flicks?"

"Nope."

Holding Arizona's leg up, she slowly extended her leg, watching Arizona grimace and then pull back. "Hurts the whole way and then grabs, yeah?"

"What about behind the knee? Sore?" she asked at the same time as pressing the pads of her fingers in to the tissue.

"Ouch, yes."

"Torn ligaments at least, possibly a patella fracture. Badness, you probably need an xray and a scan. You going to need to rest it a bit, as much as you can."

Arizona rolled her eyes and shrugged. "It's not like I can be on crutches. I'm already walking weird and causing blisters."

"On this one?" Callie asked, open palm on her residual limb. Arizona nodded, only slightly flinching as Callie didn't hesitate to assess the damage. "It would be from your change in gait."

"Yup."

"Ouch," Callie added, shaking her head. "Sofia has known since she was a toddler that she can't leave things lying around."

"I don't think she deliberately did it; she wasn't exactly calm."

"Mmmm, I guess so. Do you mind if I lie on the bed with you?"

Arizona laughed and rolled her eyes. "Are we still actually guest rooming or pretending to for Sofia?"

"Well, we did say we would take it slow. Although, then again, you also said that you would lie in my arms on your bed so I'm just making sure we're on the same page."

"Please?" Arizona asked, cheekily almost as she slid around to lay back against her pillows. She patted the space beside her. Kicking off her shoes, Callie quickly slid into place on top of the covers and Arizona immediately tried to roll on to her side and into Callie's side. "Ow," she murmured, "that hurts." Sighing, she pulled some of Callie's shirt into her fist. "Such a long day."

"Want to talk?"

"Can we save that for tomorrow night?"

"Of course. Want to just lie here and cry?"

Arizona tilted her head up and found Callie's eyes on her, looking ever so gentle, unassuming and full of careful attention. "Yup."

"Okay," Callie whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She traced small patterns on Arizona's arm and back and, only a few tears fell before she drifted to sleep. When she woke the next morning, she was somehow under the blankets and Callie was sound asleep next to her. The sun was up, and Arizona hadn't woken once during the night. She couldn't remember the last time that had happened, well she could, and it was one of the last times that Callie had ever shared her bed.

XXX

TBC…