So some of you have wanted to know since I'm making Callie happy if I was going to make Arizona happy in the end as well. Arizona is not on the character list of my story for a reason, this story isn't about her, it's about Callie and I don't really care to write Arizona a nice ending, sorry.
This chapter is just tying up a few loose Calzona ends so I can start to really do Calvvy some justice. I also snuck/sneaked? a small Savvy POV in there at the end. Tell me if I should do that again or just keep it from Callie's POV.
Jouir De !
It has been a week since Sofia's accident and I haven't been back to work since, even though I only had Sofia on four of those days. The other days were spent doing research. I looked into custody cases to see how that type of thing is decided in court. I want Arizona and I to get a better schedule than switching off with Sofia every two days but I don't want us to have to go to court for a judge to decide so I decided to look it up and get Arizona to agree on one of the schedules I found. I thought it interesting to find that only a parent would be awarded custody or some type of visitation with the child. Parent meaning biological or adoptive so Arizona would have been awarded some form of custody since she adopted Sof. Not that I would keep Sofia from her without good reason I just thought it was interesting. I liked the joint custody schedules where one parent had the kid for the week and then the other would get them for the weekend. Really anything is better than what we have going on now.
I also met with my lawyer and had some papers drawn up. It's time... It's been time.
Arizona should be coming over any minute now. I asked her to come by the apartment on her lunch break so we could get this over with. I'm not as hesitant as I thought I would be. And while I didn't expect to do this so soon I'm now sure that this is what I actually want and not just some knee jerk reaction to what she did. I get up to make another pot of coffee since I haven't slept a wink knowing what 'm about to lay on Arizona. I'm about to take a sip when I hear knocking. Okay Callie, you can do this. Don't let those blue oceans suck you in. I walk to the front door after my internal pep talk and open it to reveal who I thought was the love of my life at some point. And she's looking really pretty. She's been looking really good lately and though I haven't said anything, I've noticed. She's also looking nervous, as she should since I didn't tell her what I wanted her to come here for. We exchange good mornings and how are yous and you wouldn't believe we would've been together going on six years seeing how strained and awkward we are now. I tell her to have a seat on the couch while I pour her a cup of coffee. I use this moment to get myself together enough to get through this hour or however long it's going to take us to have this conversation.
"Callie?" I hear from the living room. I make my way back to Arizona and see she's found the papers I had spread out on the coffee table. She holds one up to me when I'm close enough to see, as if I don't already know what they say word for word. "What is this?" she asks me.
"Umm, divorce papers." I say and set her mug down on the table since her hands are occupied.
"No I know what they are. Why do you have them?" she asks me, still looking at the papers in hand.
I take a breath and gently pull the papers away from her when she won't let go. I put a leg up on the couch and turn to face her. I grab both of her hands and wait for her watery eyes to find my equally watery ones. We look at each other for a moment, both of us knowing what's about to happen, before I offer her a sad smile. "It's time to call it, Arizona." As soon as the words leave my mouth she shakes her head and tries to pull her hands from mine but I don't let her. "I'm sorry." I tell her as the first tear makes its way down my cheek.
"Stop." she cuts me off. "'Why are you doing this? Why can't you just forgive me so we can move forward?"
"I'm not doing anything Arizona.. And in order for me to forgive you I need you to actually be sorry, and I don't think you are. But this isn't about me not letting us move forward this is about not wanting us to move forward." I tell her, trying to get her so see through my eyes what she's not hearing from my words.
"Calliope... no. Okay, no, just... stop."
"No Arizona you stop." I say pleadingly. "You haven't been happy, for a while now apparently, and maybe that's on me for not noticing or ignoring it but I know now and. it. is. okay." I tell her with a sad but understanding smile. She looks at me like she wants to disagree, to tell me that she was happy and plead for me to reconsider but the words don't come out. She knows she wasn't happy. She couldn't forgive me for cutting off her leg and tried being the good man in the storm she was raised to be by swallowing her hurt and put her happiness on the back burner for the sake of her family but ended up messing up anyway. I get it. I sucks and I wish she could have come to me about it but I get it.
"I love you." She offers, trying to make up for being unhappy, while squeezing my hands trying to make me feel it.
I give her another sad smile and say "I know." I force myself to let go of her hands, the same hands that have brought me pleasure over the years, and line all the papers that need our signatures and hand her a pen. She looks at me again, begging me not to make her do this. I just scoot closer to her and grab my pen. With one last look at her I sign all the lines next to my name, for the second time in my life. I wipe my eyes and look back to her, "We sign these papers, we stop hurting each other, and we get to be happy." I tell her as I put her hand holding the pen over the first line she has to sign. She looks at the paper for a while, probably reading it, before her hand starts to move, and I see a few tears slide down her cheeks as well. She barely signs all the lines before I feel her lips on mine. I allow her this kiss, this last kiss because I need it too, for closure. Her tongue slides in past my lips and I greet it with mine. I'm gonna miss her this way but I know this is for the best because even with her tongue down my throat all I still think about is her doing this to Lauren. I pull back and rest my forehead against hers. I know now is probably not the best time to throw this at her but I might as well kill two birds with one stone. "We need to discuss custody of Sofia." I say and feel her pull back this time. She looks like I slapped her.
"Callie you can't take her from me too. She's my daughter too, she's all I have left." She says and she's a second away from hyperventilating. It's cute how much she loves that little girl but I'm still worried if the next time things get too hard for her she'll abandon Sofia again. I put my hands on her shoulders to get her to calm down and look at me.
"Breathe.. I'm not taking her away from you. But this every two day switch off we're doing isn't working. It's stressful and confusing to her getting settled in to one place just to be taking to the other the next day. And it's hard to get a routine going so.." I let her shoulders go and prepare myself for her reaction to me suggestion. "I looking into custody schedules online. I figured we could do this on our own, we've already fought over her so much that I don't want to do it again by going to court. I figure she could stay with me during the week and go with you on the weekends. Or if that starts keeping you from plans on the weekend she could go every other weekend. Or we could switch weeks." I rush out all my ideas before she can stop me. It's not fair and sucks but this is what we have. I feel I should get more time seeing as she came from me but I don't voice that to Arizona, she's already looks so defeated I don't know how she's going to be able to go back to work after this. "I know we're surgeons and board members and we have very busy and unpredictable schedules so we'll have to-"
"Callie." She stops me from rambling and I thank her. "It's fine. The first option is fine I'm just glad you're not taking her from me. I'll take whatever you give me." she states sadly.
"She's yours too Arizona I can't just take her from you no matter how much I threaten to." We're quiet after that, Arizona thinking and me taking this moment to reflect on the better times in our marriage. I think about how I've grown as a person and all that I learned from being with her. I remember the love we shared and mourn what could have been had things been different. I think of all the things I still want for her, like for her to go therapy and get some help and for her to find someone who will love her and not hurt her like I have. I laugh at how life kept trying to tell us to stay apart and we didn't listen.
"So this is it for us huh?" Arizona breaks through my mental slide show of us.
I take her hand and say "Yea, I guess it is." and she nods.
"And this Savvy woman," I smile at the mere mention of Savvy's name even though it was uttered with a little bitterness. "She seems nice. Sofia loves her. She talks about her and Snoopy all the time." My smile widens as I think about how Savvy would bring Snoopy over to keep Sofia from going crazy from having to stay home until she got her cast on and learned how to use her tiny crutches. How Sofia would steal my company and have Savvy draw all kinds of things on her cast. I laugh out loud at the memory of Savvy's face when Sofia asked if Savvy could sneak her some donuts home from work. No I did not tell her to say that if that's what you're thinking, I don't know where she got that from actually.
"How would you know if she's nice with how rude you were to her?" I tease, thinking back to the awful circumstances they met under.
"Yea well, she put her lips on you, I was allowed to be rude." she says and let out a sad chuckle then looks at me with such regret.
I've had my fair share of mean moments in this separation but I want us to end on some sort of truce so I tell her "I'll miss you." and it's true, already miss my Arizona.
"Me too." she talks over the lump of emotion clearly in her throat.
"I do love you Arizona." Always will.
"I love you too Calliope, know that okay?" I nod and allow my lips to be taken by hers again before she gets up and walks out the door, leaving me feeling a little bittersweet but also a little lighter.
Savvy's POV:
I can't tell you how relieved I was that Callie's daughter Sofia was okay after that hit. I couldn't have lived with myself knowing that it was my fault she died. It was already my fault my wife and kid are dead I couldn't have had that on my conscience as well. And hearing Callie's wife say it was my fault didn't help but I took solace in the fact that Sofia was still breathing because of me too. I'm on my way to Callie's house to eat, as usual, but that was just my excuse to get together privately and not just for an hour during lunch. And while I love Callie's cooking, whose Lisa's had nothing on by the way, I come to spend time with her just as much as I come to eat. I knock on the door before trying the knob, knowing she leaves it unlocked when she's expecting me, the knock is just a warning. When I walk in, I feel home. I feel more at home here than in the house my wife and I raised our daughter in. I do my usual strip of my coat, boots, badge, and gun at the door. Callie is usually sitting on the couch or meets me at the door but today she's doing neither. She must be in her room. "Callie?" I call out. I hope she's here. I don't smell any food cooking in the kitchen and I'm beginning to think she forgot she told me to come over.
"In here!" She yells back and I follow her voice, which sounds a little upset. I enter the open room door and I find her sitting on the floor next to a half full box looking at what looks like a wedding album. She looks up to me and I can tell she's been crying a little, her eyes aren't bloodshot but they aren't white either. I want to do nothing more than to scoop her up in my arms and kiss and love all her sadness away but she still belongs to Arizona no matter how much I wish she didn't.
"Callie, what are you doing?" I ask her. She closes the book, places it in the box and folds the box flaps in, effectively closing it and looks at me with a smile.
"Making my peace." she says all cryptic-like, like I know what she's taking about.
"Okayyy..." I tell the crazy woman I find myself falling for. She gets up, grabs my and leads me out of the room and into the living room. She guides me to the couch and I follow her lead when she sits. She opens a manilla envelope and pulls a piece of paper halfway out then turns it for me to read and I do. I know it's wrong that I'm smiling seeing the first line say petition for divorce but I can't help it. I look from the paper to her and she pulls it out all the way for me to see the two signatures. I pull the envelope out of her hands and put it on the coffee table and grab her and pull her to me about to kiss her when I catch myself and hug her instead. I pull her back and ask her how she feels.
"Good actually. I thought I would be more broken up about it but I guess I've known this was gonna happen since the night of the storm so I was prepared. I'm still incredibly sad that it had to end the way it did but it's better this way. And now you're here, so I'm happy." she says to me with a hint of a smile that I have to return because it's so infectious. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her to my lips, not able to hold myself back anymore. I feel her melt into me and it warms my heart.
"Congratulations. I'm happy for you." I tell her when I give her her lips back. "Is this why I don't smell anything cooking in that kitchen?" I ask her.
"I just tell you that I'm divorced and you're thinking about food?" she asks and I just nod, not seeing the problem. "You're incorrigible." she tells me and goes into the kitchen, returning with more takeout menus than a little, "Here, knock yourself out." and she hands me them.
I look through them, not fazed by eating out since it's what I would have done if I had gone home. I stop on a pizza place and hold it up, asking if she wants that, she snatches the menu and rips it up and says "No pizza, choose something else." I'm completely confused and a little upset since I really wanted pizza but I let it go, settling for chinese food. I order for both of us and ask is Sofia was home. She says no and I'm a little disappointed, I really wanted to see the little bugger but I'm glad to have Callie all to myself.
I throw my legs across her lap and ask "So you know what this means right?"
"What what means?" she asks confused.
"You being divorced..." she shakes her head no, not following my train of thought. "It means.. I get to take you out now, on a date, where you dress up, and I pay the bill when the check comes." I say and her smile blinds me momentarily, making me forget what I was saying to smile back at her.
"Oh is that what that means?" She asks and I nod confidently. "What makes you think I want to go on a date with you Savvy?" she teases me. I don't answer, I just lean in a reclaim her lips and tongue, kissing her with more force and passion than I have before and it makes her moan.
"That.." I answer her when she finally opens her eyes.
Thanks for reading :)
