Title: Learning How to Survive

Paring: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PG-13 (for now)

Summary: Callie's life falls apart after witnessing George's death. Will she spiral out of control and lose all hope, or can she still be rescued?

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 owners.

Basically, I own nada, just creating random events for fun :)

Beta: The super-amazing GreysCalzonaLover

As the blonde reached for the door handle, she was stopped by the brunette's almost silent whisper. "Arizona." When the blonde turned to look at her Callie smiled. "I know it's stupid, but will you go on a date with me?" When the blonde flashed her killer dimples, Callie knew her answer.

"Text me the details." With renewed hope, the blonde left the on-call room, running to the location of her 911 page.

Arizona felt like she was on cloud nine. Her heart was skipping and her dimples were out in full force. Her wife may not know exactly who she was, but Callie was prepared to get to know her again, to revisit those memories that they had created together, and that was all that mattered to her right now. They were taking steps. Teeny-tiny, baby steps, but they were steps none-the-less.

The emergency appy that she had been called to had gone smoothly. She was slightly irritated that it was her that was paged, as she had trained her monkeys well to do these surgeries. Alex was doing so brilliantly in the field and frequently put a smile on her face when she caught him interacting with the kids.

Looking in on all her little ones on her way to her office, she allowed herself to breathe and catch up with all the turmoil that her heart and been through in less than twenty-four hours. Things shouldn't be this crazy, but then again, things had never been easy for her and Callie.

A gentle knock at her office door had her leaping off of the couch that she had been lounging on. Arizona smiled when she noticed very familiar russet eyes pop around the door. "Hey," she smiled. "I thought you were going to text me?"

"Yeah, I was going to, but then I thought that I wouldn't have an excuse to see you again if I had." Callie blushed, wondering where this other side of her had come from. Despite all her confusing feelings for the blonde before her, she had still been fighting with herself, feeling that she was cheating on Erica.

Arizona timidly took Callie's hand in her own. She didn't know what was okay anymore, what was too much for her. "Come take a seat." The brunette sat down next to her, making sure that there was a part of them that was touching.

"So... I was thinking that... ummm... maybe we can go to the park, there's this really nice spot where you can see the whole of Seattle. I was thinking that maybe we could have a picnic there?" She was nervous, very nervous. Her hands were idly playing with each other, like they had minds if their own, when she realised this, she put them flat against her thighs.

Arizona was tempted to tell Callie that she knew exactly which spot she was talking about. She wanted to tell her about all the romantic evenings that they had spent there under the stars, some innocent, and more not-so-innocent. "I would love to." She wanted nothing more than to kiss her wife, but she knew that things had to go at Callie's pace, not her own.

Callie's smile broke out across her face, reminding Arizona of her wife on their wedding day, the excitement and joy in those big brown eyes were like a photograph imprinted in her memory. She would do this for her, she would play along with their dates and teenage giggles, and she would act like it was all new for her. She would do anything that she had to do to get her wife back, to get her Calliope back.

"Okay, well I'll be seeing you around." Callie smiled on her way out.

The blonde giggled from her seat on the couch. "You're such a dork, and yes, you'll be seeing me around."

A gentle blush had settled in Callie's cheeks as she closed the door behind her. She couldn't ever remember feeling this nervous about a date. There was something about Arizona that made her feel relaxed and on edge at the same time. The way that she had her heart fluttering and butterflies exploding in her stomach just at the thought of her, made Callie completely and totally perplexed and frightened, but ecstatic at the same time.

Callie felt over the moon, yet she was wracked with guilt at the same time. The more she learnt about Arizona, the more she fell out of love with Erica. There was nothing specifically wrong with Erica. She was amazing, and beautiful and understanding. But she wasn't Arizona. Callie kept finding herself comparing the blondes. The way her skin hummed when Arizona looked at her, made her realise that her body never responded to Erica that way. She thought about the way that Arizona's eyes twinkled and danced when they caught each others' gazes, and the way that her heart ached when the simple contact was lost.

The most astounding of all, was the fact that she stood in the same place that she had been for the last few minutes, hand still on the door handle, and smile still firmly in place. This woman had her whipped. Her smile grew as she shook her head, loosening her grip and walking away from the blonde's office, taking note of the heaviness that set in her heart the further she walked.

She stepped onto the elevator, heading to the main lobby to see if she could find Bailey. That woman was likely impossible to find, but she was going to try anyway.

"Torres." Cristina nodded absently.

Callie's eyes widened when she took note of the Korean woman standing in the elevator, pram next to her and a babbling little boy in her arms. She smiled adoringly at him as he yanked away at Cristina's unruly hair, his own mop of ginger curls not much more tame than his mother's.

"What? It's not like you've never seen him before." Cristina registered Callie's confused expression then commenced her fish out of water impression. "Yes, you haven't seen him before." Eyes wide and over exaggerating her movements, Cristina turned her son to face Callie.

"Shut up Yang." Callie grumbled. She may have been having an off day, but she wasn't about to let the surly intern enjoy it. She can't still be an intern, maybe Attending? Over her internal grumble, Callie took the little man from his mother, cooing over him. "I wanna take you home with me." She smiled lovingly at him, "I don't think that your mommy would like that though." She placed a gentle kiss on his crown, inhaling his addicting baby smell.

A now familiar fuzzy feeling took over her body, not trusting herself with Cristina's son, she handed him back, trying to brace herself for what may lay ahead of her.

"Hey Squirt, I'm home." Callie found herself on the sidelines of the room. From her earlier experience she deduced that this was another memory. She sat on a plush, chocolate brown couch, a young child, no older than three, perched on her lap.

"Momma!" The unexpected squeal caused Callie to take a step back as she watched the further events unfold.

She watched as the little girl climbed unsteadily off of her lap and ran into the awaiting arms of a familiar blonde. She smiled as understanding washed over her. This was their family. "Sofia." She whispered into the deserted room. The area around her had long since transformed back into her current location in the lobby. She shook her head, raven curls swaying gently around her. She really needed to find Arizona.

"Torres?" Christina's voice penetrated the fog that had set in around her. She could hear the panic in her voice, but knew that the younger woman would never admit to it, ever.

"I need to go." Callie whispered. She felt her heart shatter the moment that she had realised the significance of her memory, a lump had settled in her throat and no amount of swallowing seemed to alleviate it. Her body went onto autopilot, taking her back in the direction that she come, her feet carrying her to where they knew that they needed to go. She fought back the tears that threatened to fall, refusing to break down in front of everyone.

As Callie walked into the Paediatrics ward she spotted Arizona. The lump in her throat grew and she started shaking.

Arizona's eyes locked onto the wide petrified orbs of her wife. She handed her chart to the closest nurse and made a beeline for the frazzled brunette. Coming up next to Callie, Arizona took her hand and led her further down the corridor into the on-call room. As soon as the door closed behind them, the floodgates opened.

"We have a daughter? How could I have forgotten that? What sort of mother forgets that she has a child?" The tears started falling down tanned cheeks. Arizona didn't know what to do, she didn't know whether to grab the pacing brunette or if she should let her work through things, let her vent.

"She's so beautiful. Like the way that she looks at me, with those pouty lips and those 'puss-in-boots' eyes, that she could only have learnt from you. Who forgets their own baby Arizona? Why would I do that?" Callie stopped pacing, tears freely flowing down her cheeks. She turned to the blonde, compassion and love adorned on the pale features of the woman that she knew deep down she loved. "Why?"

Arizona walked up to Callie, pulling her down onto the stiff mattress of the on-call room bed. She wrapped one arm around the trembling brunette as best she could, whilst the other stroked wild locks off of Callie's red, puffy cheeks. She kissed the brunette's temple, trying herself to keep her tears at bay.

"You are far from a bad mother. When Sofia wakes up in the middle of the night screaming from a nightmare, you're in her room soothing away the monsters before I've even sat up. Last year, when she begged for a puppy for Christmas, and I was so ready to cave in as soon as she pulled out the puppy-dog face, you explained the responsibilities that she would have, and at the word 'poop' she swore she would never have a dog. Which, by the way, is why we now have chickens." When Callie gave the blonde a quizzical look, Arizona smiled and shrugged her shoulders innocently. "You taught her how to tie her shoelaces whilst Mark still tries to keep buying her Velcro ones. You're the only person that she wants when she's sick because she wants you to sing to her, I'm only allowed to stroke her hair." Callie smiled at the pout that came across the blonde's features. "She loves you so much; you're the centre of her little world."

"But I still forgot her." Callie's smile dropped instantly. "How old is she? When's her birthday? What was her first word? What is her favourite colour? Does she have a favourite toy? Is she allergic to anything? I can't stop thinking of all these questions that I don't know the answers to."

"Breathe, Calliope you need to breathe before you start having an anxiety attack. You'll remember everything, just give it time."

The brunette looked up through thick eyelashes, her facial expressions showing every emotion other than relief. Arizona knew that she would have to try harder if she wanted to convince her.

"You didn't deliberately forget her. Calliope, your life is a bit crazy right now, but know that no matter what, I'm here for you. I love you with all my heart, and if I have to spend every day of the rest of my life reminding you of our love, baby I'm prepared to do that for you." Callie lifted her head, her eyes quickly seeking out the calming blue orbs and attaching to them. She could feel her heart erupt into a symphony of drums, the mood in the room changed at the blink of an eye, instant electricity shot through her body, drawing her closer to the blonde.

Arizona felt it too, the sudden pull, like they were being forced together by fate. Her heart started racing through her body, her breathing slowed almost to a stop, she felt like she could pass out from the intensity of the moment.

Callie's palm rested once again on a smooth ivory cheek. Her eyes locked with blue. She watched as Arizona drew in closer to her, slowly, giving her every chance that she needed to pull away. But she didn't want to, she needed to know the taste of those lips, she desperately ached to feel the soft warmth against her own.

The erratic beeping of Arizona's pager once again filled the room. "God I swear I'm going to smash this thing the next time it does this." Arizona grumbled under her breath as she pulled it off her waistband.

Callie couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of her chest. There was something almost familiar and endearing about the blonde fighting with the small object now in her hand.

"You're going to be smashing it quite often then." She smiled cheekily. "Umm... so I'll see you at about 7, by the entrance?" Callie suddenly felt nervous and giddy at the same time. Her heart was doing all kinds of crazy gymnastics in her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe like a normal person.

"Yeah." Arizona couldn't have stopped the dimpled smile that lit up her face, even if her life had depended upon it.

Before she could lose all nerve and chicken out, Callie leaned in, placing a delicate, chaste kiss on Arizona's right dimple, and then quickly scurried out of the room. She didn't know how, or why, but those dimples were dangerous!