Title: Causal Fallacy (11/?)

Author: Maggiemerc

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I don't own them. If I did there'd be a lot more lesbian sex on the show.

Pairings: Callie/Arizona, Owen/Cristina, Meredith/Derek, Amelia/Lexie, etc, etc.

Summary: Sometimes there is no link between cause and effect. Sometimes it is just the natural world bearing down on you and devastating everything in its path. A sequel to the Alternate Universe episode, "If/Then" and Another Statement of Causality. Callie and Arizona are at a loss with how to make a relationship work with three kids and Cristina and Owen are blindly moving forward damned the costs.

Author's Note: We're over the hump! Let squishy fluffy sexy happy times begin. I mean, with a little drama, but all planes have been grounded and there's not a car behind a giant truck in sight and any potential gunmen are safely squirreled away. Thank you for all the wonderful and constructive feedback and never hesitate to give me more as I thrive on the stuff.

Chapter Eleven

It took Owen two weeks to finally confess to why Carlos Torres kept smiling at her and asking if she liked the Indigo Girls.

Two weeks.

Callie was through her second surgery and about to be discharged with a brand new knee, a titanium reinforced femur and a boat load of really good drugs. Derek Shepherd was getting ready to go in for another surgery that might help save his hand. Meredith was back at work. Addison was still a vegetable but her fiancee didn't shout at interns or residents who lurked near her room any more.

And in all that time Owen couldn't find a single moment to tell her Carlos Torres thought she was Arizona's lover. Not once.

She and Owen had had sex sixteen times! He helped her study for her boards. He stayed over at her house and she found him eating breakfast with Amelia Shepherd. And he couldn't once say "by the way Torres really likes you and Robbins because he thinks you finger bang her every night while crooning Tegan and Sara or something."

Meredith didn't get it, "You're mad he thinks you're gay?"

"Oh I could care less," she swished her hand dismissively, "But gay for McDreamy? I am way too hardcore a lesbian for her. Your sister. Shepherd. I could see being gay for them, but not someone who quiffs sunshine."

Meredith laughed but waved her hands, "No. Gross. I don't need that image."

"Women probably get sunburns going down on her."

Meredith grabbed her pillow and swung it at Cristina's head. "Seriously. Stop."

"I can't. I've been thinking about it ever since Owen told me. Two weeks after the fact."

"Does it really change anything?"

"If Callie's dad thinks I'm sleeping with Robbins? Yeah. My image."

Meredith rolled her eyes, "You're not exactly Ms. Vanity."

"I am if that old man starts running his mouth off at the hospital. I'm the resident so scary attendings give me solo surgeries to avoid saying no to me. Not the one that paddles bright and happy Robbins' canoe."

"If you do one more euphemism that causes me to picture you and Arizona's apparently luminescent vagina I'm gonna throw up all over you."

She sighed and flopped back onto Mer's bed. "But what if she finds out?"

"It's not like she'll be mad at you."

"No, but she'll try to joke about it and I don't like her enough for that."

Meredith was sitting cross legged on her bed making some kind of game to study for her boards using index cards and post its. She scribbled something on a pink post it and stuck it on top of a stack of cards.

"Is she really that bad?"

Cristina sighed and rolled over onto her stomach to better watch Mer's work. "Not really," she snagged a throw pillow and hugged it to herself, "it's just I signed on for a relationship with Owen you know? And now I'm stuck with his kids, his ex and Robbins. It's like a post-modern Brady Bunch."

Meredith stacked a pile of cards into a deck and handed them to her, "Okay Marcia. Quiz me."

Cristina thumbed through the cards on the hunt for a really good one, "Can there ever be such a thing as too much studying?"

Mer frowned. "This is for our boards Cristina. This determines the rest of our lives."

"Right, but we're both really smart and we study at least four hours a day. Couldn't you take a break? Get out of bed. Maybe move from the study cocoon you've built yourself."

"I go to work," Meredith said defensively.

"Sure. Your mom put you on a forty hour a week schedule. There are Derm attendings that work longer hours."

"She wants to make sure I have time to study."

"Is that what Derek's doing too?"

"Cristina—"

"Because—"

Meredith slammed her own stack of cards down onto the mattress, "He broke up with me okay? Addison's in a coma and his hand requires months of physical therapy and apparently having a girlfriend that cries when planes fly overhead but tries to act normal is too much for him."

She'd suspected something was up. Mer spent all of her time in her room burying herself in prep for boards and she hadn't mentioned Derek once since he'd been discharged. But she thought maybe they'd just taken a break not actually— "I'm sorry."

Meredith swallowed to keep from crying, "I'll be fine. I'm gonna rock my boards and get a fellowship in, like, Baltimore and my mother and Derek can both suck it."

"You're not going for the one at Seattle Grace?"

"Cardio? I thought you were. With Owen and everything."

"Well yeah, but not exclusively. Mayo and UCLA have both sent inquiries."

Mer blinked, "Wait. You're thinking of leaving?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Owen? Your post-modern Brady Bunch life?"

Somehow between boards, Owen and the plane crash she'd failed to actually consider that. If she left she couldn't ask him to go—not with his job and kids. But was it right to stay and work for Teddy Altman and spend two more years learning from Callie? Maybe when Hahn had joined the staff it would have been worth it. But Torres and Altman were something else entirely.

She focused on the cards still in her hands, "Okay. Patient is a twelve year old male complaining of chest pains…"

####

Arizona's first official week back was one of the best weeks of her life. In the OR she was her normal self and quickly found the rhythm she'd been a little scared she'd lost. Outside of the OR the kids who'd heard of what happened were only astounded by her existence and everyone else walked carefully around her and treated her like royalty. Karev, feeling guilty for not being on the plane himself, even took over all of her paperwork AND did it right.

And when she was a little wary she could go down a floor, take a right, and spend her time with Callie. They'd read books to each other, gossip and just enjoy being together and, relatively, healthy.

Unfortunately Callie was only improving and four days after her final surgery Rebecca interrupted the movie they were watching. She clicked the TV off like an grumpy teacher and ignored both women's protest, "Dr. Robbins, do you mind?"

"But that was the part where he realizes he's in love with Claire Danes even though she's a fallen star and he can't deliver her to Sienna Miller," she protested. It was a really good movie.

Callie patted her arm, "I'm fine with Arizona staying."

Arizona raised her eyebrow in a challenge to Rebecca. If her being in the room and Callie telling her to stay wasn't proof that they were serious she didn't know what was.

The ortho surgeon pursed her lips and glared. "Fine. So Callie, as you know, you've shown monumental improvements." Callie nodded and Arizona grinned. Her girlfriend had shown awesome improvements. "No sign of infection since the first week here, and your femur is healing well, as is the new knee."

Callie shifted in her bed. While her wounds were healing like she was a superhero she was still in a lot of pain. Partly, Arizona suspected, because she was skipping some of her pain meds.

Rebecca was still talking—"Which is why I think today is the day we discharge you."

Arizona bolted up right, "What, really?"

Rebecca ignored her. "With a lot of patients I'd be hesitant. But you're a doctor and you're surrounded by doctors. If you do the PT, keep activity to a minimum and avoid anymore planes I think you can go home in a couple of hours."

Callie involuntarily squeezed Arizona's arm at the mention of the word plane. But Arizona was too busy feeling her stomach lurch up into her mouth at the word to respond.

Rebecca didn't notice, "So what do you say? Ready to go home?"

A giddy laugh bubbled out of her, "Yes," she exclaimed, "God yes!"

Rebecca explained the protocol for discharge—which they both already knew—and made her exit. Callie grabbed her phone off the table near her bed and started to dial a number but froze when she realized she had no idea who to call.

Arizona raised an eyebrow and watched her. "You okay?"

"I don't know who to call," she said flatly.

"About…"

"I have to go home and I have no idea—I don't know what to do."

Arizona quickly glanced outside. Seeing no one paying attention to them she went to the door and shut it. She closed the shades on the way back before taking a seat on the edge of Callie's bed.

Her girlfriend's phone sat forgotten in her hand as she watched Arizona. "What are you doing?"

"This," she leaned over and softly kissed Callie's lips. They fluttered just beneath her own. She'd had so few opportunities to kiss Callie. Stolen moments late at night or early in the morning when Callie's dad or a big mouthed nurse was unlikely to intrude. "You," she said gently, "don't have to worry about a thing today. Owen and Cristina and I switched your office and your bedroom last weekend and your dad will be there every night if you need anything. I'll even take the couch if he gets too clingy. So in a minute we'll call him and get him to come pick you up while I go watch more awesome surgeries and figure out how to tell Amelia I can't watch her big surgery back tonight."

Callie darted in for another kiss. "You thought of everything."

"I'm kind of awesome that way."

"Hm," she ran her hands over Arizona's arms. The warm pads of her fingers painting delicate strokes across her skin. "Did you think of this?" Her hands clamped down on Arizona's forearms and dragged her forward into something a little more friendly.

She moaned pleasantly into the kiss, "No, but a good surprise is always—"

"Shut up," Callie said into her mouth.

Arizona had gone nearly two months without sex. The first had been post breaking up with Callie. She hadn't even been able to muster a first date and had buried herself in her work—developing a new program to help disenfranchised sick kids in Malawi and hopefully get her another Carter Madison, teaching Karev to be a better doctor and figuring out a plan that would have allowed them to push up the Boise twins surgery that led to their plane crash.

She found herself falling to sleep each night missing Callie and crying in the shower because she didn't know what else to do. Sex—the release that had been her constant for years—just didn't entice her. It had been like Callie had…broken her.

The three weeks since the crash had been sex free too, but that's because she had a gimpy arm and Callie was stuck in a hospital bed. What should have been a cute little "we're dating" kiss was anything but.

She wasn't going to start stripping her scrubs off in Callie's room—or stripping Callie's gown off either—but she disappeared into the kiss. Greedily exploring Callie's lips and reacquainting herself with each sigh and every hitch in Callie's breath.

"I missed this," she sighed in a whisper.

####

Callie missed fast food and when her dad had her loaded in the back of the van he'd rented and pulled away from the hospital that had become her involuntary home for nearly a month he turned and asked if she needed anything.

Besides, of course, the myriad of equipment the hospital was sending home with her and the extensive selection of very good drugs and antibiotics.

"A cheeseburger," she asked hopefully.

Her dad smiled. "Of course mija."

It was a little weird being ferried around Seattle by her dad. It took her back to being a kid and sitting in the back of the family Suburban on the rare family road trip.

They hit a drive through on the way home but Callie directed her dad to Kinnear Park instead of the house. He didn't argue—instead noting he'd never been there before.

"It's got a nice view of the Sound and I just—I needed some outdoors time. Being cooped up in a hospital for three weeks has me a little batty."

He smiled in the rearview mirror and got out to help her and her granny walker to a bench. They propped her leg up on the walker and watched the water while happily eating their sandwiches.

"This is nice," her father mused. "Just you and me."

She leaned into her father and rested her head on his shoulder. "I missed you Daddy."

"I missed you too." His hand, larger than her own, covered the one she'd wrapped around his arm. He was warm and his thumb rubbed small circles on her wrist. It was a comfortable silence finally interrupted by his haunted musing, "I didn't even know you were missing."

She sat up, "Daddy?"

He tried to smile but it fell into a frown. "My daughter was missing in the forest and I didn't even know."

She shook her head. "Owen was—"

"Taking care of my grandchildren and clearly upset, but I should have known Calliope. I'm your father and I should have known you were in trouble."

She kissed him on the cheek and rested her head on his shoulder again. Would she know where her own kids were on trouble? Would some queer feeling bubble up and tell her to rush home? Or would she be her father hearing it in a phone call and feeling the world fall away?

"And it's not just the crash," he continued. "You've been here all alone. Getting a divorce. Raising three children."

"I wasn't alone though." Arizona had been there. For the worst moments Arizona had been a constant presence driving all the awfulness away with a sunny smile and enigmatic eyes. She'd been…miraculous.

"Friends," her father said skeptically, "they're not family Calliope. At the end of the day they go home to their own lives."

But Arizona hadn't. She'd wormed her way into Callie's life. Her kids called her Arizona instead of Dr. Robbins and Callie knew that it took exactly seventeen minutes to get from the hospital or Arizona's to Callie's house. Which wasn't actually a good example of how bound to each other they'd become—but it was proof of something. Like Arizona's constant presence by her side at the hospital. It was commitment. It was more than a fling or experimentation. Even before the crash when Arizona had broken up with her it had been more. After it was like—it was the familiarity she'd always wanted with a lover.

It was love.

"Daddy, the friends I have here are family."

"The lesbians?"

Her heart stopped. "Excuse me?"

"I know your lesbian friends are very close, but mija, they're in love and a couple all they're own. They can't be a substitute for real family."

Plural? Okay so Arizona was probably one of the lesbians. Callie never thought she gave off whatever vibe it was that said "gay" but they were inseparable even when her dad was around so she had to be one of them. But who could the other one be? Not Owen's mom. Addison was in a coma. She wasn't friends with any other women. In fact the only other woman her dad had probably seen was Yang.

…

He though Yang and Arizona were lovers? Together? In a coital sense? With all the really fun activities that implied?

Yang?!

Really?

"Which is why I'm moving here temporarily."

Wait. What? How did that—her dad was moving to Seattle?

"Daddy, I appreciate you coming out here and helping with the kids and everything but I really don't—"

"We've been talking about expanding our boutique line and Seattle was one of the markets discussed. It'd be for business as much as pleasure. I'll stay six months. Live with you and the kids and after that if you decide you want to move ho—"

"Okay," she held up her hand, "let me stop you right there. I'm not moving home. I have a job here—a fellowship! And my friends are here. More importantly the kids' father."

"Aria did just fine when she moved with your mother to Miami."

"Her dad's also an asshole Daddy! Owen is a good man and a good father and I'm not going to drag my kids across the country away from him just because you're nervous."

He did that thing he always did where he acted like he was listening and caring about what she said. Then he kissed her forehead. "We'll talk about it later."

She rolled her eyes. Great. She wanted to talk about it more right then but just moving out of the car to the bench and the prospect of moving back to the car again had taken a lot out of her.

Meekly she agreed, "We will."

####

As an assistant librarian Lexie had limited access to the hospital. She had a command of the records that made the board prepping residents envious but they got to go into the OR and scrub rooms and through all those doors that said NO ADMITTANCE.

They could just waltz right through and watch surgeries from the gallery too! Or they could sneak in their friends and family. Lexie used Avery and a promise to open the library early the next morning to get into the gallery for Amelia's big tumor removal. She's explained it to Lexie in detail the day before. Apparently there were a lot of issues with veins.

She'd expected the gallery to be packed with people at eight o'clock on a Friday night. What with how intricate and special the surgery was. But it was just Derek sitting in the back row with his bandaged hand propped up on his knee.

She smiled and sat in the row below him and as far away as possible. Down below Amelia prepared to make her first incision. She looked up and saw her brother and then her eyes flickered to Lexie's and she could have sworn she saw her smile behind the mask.

Amelia's scalpel split the person's skin and she carefully created a flap revealing the skull beneath. Somehow Lexie hadn't anticipated it being so…graphic. She swallowed so she wouldn't get sick.

"Is this your first surgery," Derek asked.

She glanced back at him, "Uh yeah. It is."

"Do you know what she's doing?"

"Looks like she's taking his skull off."

Shepherd laughed. "Kind of." He stood up and stepped carefully over the chairs and then came and sat next to her—leaving a single chair between them. "You want me to explain it to you?"

"I guess."

He used big technical words but would pause and seemed to sort through them before going back and defining them for her. He was a good teacher, she realized. Able to cage the technical speak in easier to understand terms.

"This is what you do right?"

He grimaced, "It was."

Right. The hand. "I'm sorry. About your hand and your ex-wife. It can't be easy."

He said nothing.

Down below Amelia asked for some tool. Derek explained its purpose then asked, "How's your sister?"

"Sad." Meredith wouldn't want him to know that. "She misses you." That either.

With his big hair and those perfect eyes and pouty lips he had an affinity for looking like a grief stricken Greek statue. His image was cut from marble and the embodiment of a single emotion: melancholia.

"I know it's complicated because of your ex-wife and your hand, but she loves you." She nodded down at Amelia, "They both do."

"Not a lot of people would have this conversation with me you know."

He was the scary McDreary. Not a guy people got familiar with. Especially someone who wasn't even a surgeon. There was a hierarchy at the hospital and she was low woman on the totem pole.

But she shrugged, "Maybe. I know I'm not a therapist or anything. I'm just an ex-drug addict who couldn't even go to college, but for the first time in a long time I have a family and I guess that child of an alcoholic in me is desperate to keep that family together no matter what. They both miss you, and you miss them too. You're here at eight o'clock on a Friday watching your sister do one of the most important surgeries of her career. That has to mean something."

"Maybe." Some of the melancholia drifted away from his face and his lips curved. Not into a smile but into something more hopeful than his previous frown. "You're more than an ex-drug addict Lexie Grey."

She'd been told so many times she was more than her addiction. That saying that to herself was her coping mechanism—the self criticalness—apparently it was supposed to be crippling.

But he smiled at her and things sort of tilted. He wasn't McDreary. In another life he might have been McDreamy. And she wasn't the worthless sister riding on whatever coattails her sister offered.

She'd been told so many times she was more than her addiction, and in that moment she believed it.

####

Amelia invited her to sit up in the gallery and watch a really cool surgery. On another day Arizona would have been all about watching Amelia get her mojo back. Unfortunately Amelia's surgery was scheduled for the same day Callie got out of the hospital and girlfriends trumped ex-girlfriends every day of the week.

She rode straight over after work. Part of her felt guilty about leaving Amelia to her surgery and Mark to another night alone at Addison's bedside. But a bigger part of her was giddy about Callie being out and the chance of seeing her happy and almost healthy in her own home powered Arizona up a particularly brutal hill she'd been cheating and walking up lately instead of riding.

She didn't run any errands or pick up any food. It would be nearly eight thirty by the time she got to Callie's and the kids would be in bed or on their way and already fed. She thought about grabbing a movie but Callie had remarked on being fed up with movies and TV after three weeks in a hospital.

She did, however, have one gift tucked in her bag. Just something small. She hadn't even decided if she'd give it to her.

The lights were all on when she rode up to the house and Allegra swung the front door open as she braked to a stop in front of the steps. They stared at each other. Arizona in her jeans, scarf and fancy, sexy but no too sexy top and Allegra in her nightgown. She had no idea how Allegra had known to open the front door.

"Did you bring donuts," she asked hopefully.

"Not tonight. Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Mom's reading us a Berenstain Bear book and then we're going."

She picked her bike up and carried it up the steps then fished the chain lock out of her bag and wrapped it around the post and her bike. It wouldn't really stop a thief but in Callie's neighborhood it was more about deterring idiot teenagers.

"So why aren't you inside with your mom?"

"I saw your light," her little finger pointed at the light on her handlebars that at that very moment Arizona was switching off.

"So she's not done yet?"

Allegra shook her head, "No. We just started."

"Good!" She leapt across the space between them in an instant and grabbed the squealing girl up in a hug. "So let's go finish," she said before kissing Allegra on the cheek.

####

A very bright and bouncy Arizona came jogging into the office turned bedroom with Allegra on her hip making a noise in perfect time with each heel strike. The last few steps into the room Arizona picked up speed and Allegra did too. She then stopped abruptly in front of Callie with a heart stopping smile and took the last few steps very slowly. Allegra slowed her noise making down to keep in time and when they stopped in front of Callie's bed they both giggled.

"Someone was waiting for me at the front door," Arizona noted, bumping Allegra up and down with a hip swish.

Gavin and Angus both cheered the arrival of their new play toy and Callie had to grab Angus and lift him over her leg before he scrambled over it in his haste to get to her.

She oofed under the massive hugs the twins applied to her legs. "Jeeze you'd think they hadn't seen me in months."

According to Allegra Arizona came by nearly every day—often with treats—and helped put her and her brothers to bed if Owen couldn't do it. "Then she and Grandpa play cards," she'd explained very seriously.

Until Callie had gotten home and been moved into her temporary bedroom she hadn't realized just how irreplaceable Arizona had become in a short period of time. Little touches of the woman were all over the bedroom. Flowers near the window, a soft rug over the hardwood floor and brand new sheets that were much pinker than what Callie was accustomed to.

Yet it was Arizona's ever expanding relationship with her children that really caught her ear. They'd been thrilled when Owen dropped them off after daycare and they realized their mom was home. He'd left with a smile and a promise to call and she'd quickly been wrapped up in hearing every detail of their lives in the weeks she'd been at the hospital.

Arizona kept popping up in their stories. Over and over again. Allegra especially was smitten with her and talked all about her plan to ride a bike just like Arizona's when she was older.

Whether she'd meant to or not (and knowing Arizona it was likely the latter) she'd formed actual relationships with Callie's children. She watched Arizona fake groan across the room with two boys latched to her legs and a little girl in her arms and a contented kind of joy sprung up within. Arizona shot her a private smile that made her cheeks hurt with a smile of her own.

"They missed you," she said intimately.

"I don't see why," she grinned down at the kids, her tone at once teasing and maternal, "You guys have an awesome mom who I hear was about to read everyone a very cool book."

She held up the slim children's book Gavin had selected. "I was!"

Arizona used her free hand to pry Angus and Gavin off her legs and return them to their spots curled up against Callie. She then took a seat cross legged at the end of the bed and held Allegra in her lap. "I, personally, am all about hearing of the adventures of Sister and Brother Bear."

Her dad came in ten minutes later and at the end of the last page and glanced at Arizona in surprise. "Arizona! I didn't hear you get here."

She motioned to the sleepy girl in her arms, "Allegra let me in. How are you Carlos?"

"I'm well."

He was fired up was what he was. Since lunch he'd gotten more and more excited about his plan to move in for a few months and had spent most of his time since dinner up in Callie's old bedroom arranging meetings for his hotel launch.

"I was actually coming to get all these little munchkins to bed." It was a not so subtle request for help and Arizona quietly acquiesced. She winked at Callie on her way out. Allegra, still in her arms, shifted lightly to wave sleepily at Callie over Arizona's shoulder.

Five minutes later Arizona slipped back into the room and dimmed the lights. She kicked off her shoes and crept toward's Callie's bed.

"They're all in bed and your dad's back up in your old bedroom," she whispered.

"Thanks."

She took a seat next to Callie and nodded towards her propped up leg. "How are you feeling?"

"Good."

Arizona's eyes narrowed and she reached over to press a cool hand against Callie's forehead. "Any fever?"

Callie pulled the hand down and placed a kiss into her open palm. "Nope. Under a hundred degrees, and before you ask, yes I'm experiencing some discomfort and took my pain meds an hour ago."

"Hm, good." She leaned in and gently pressed her lips to Callie's. "How are you holding up living with your dad?"

She rolled her eyes, "He's driving me up the wall, but it's worth it to be home with the kids again."

"They missed you."

Not as much as they would have without Arizona there.

Arizona snuck in another kiss and scooted down to the end of the bed. "You do your exercises for the day?"

Callie winced in discomfort and reseated herself. She had done the exercises, all of them, and it had turned the dull ache in her leg into a million fire ants that her meds were only now dampening, "Yes."

Arizona squinted at her then carefully pulled the blanket away from her leg and took her foot into her lap. "Bet it hurts doesn't it?"

"It'll be fine," she grunted.

Arizona ignored the bandaged part of the leg to focus on her calf, ankle and foot. She rubbed her hands together before carefully laying them on Callie's lower leg. They were warm now. Her fingers, delicate and capable of genuine art with surgical tools, dug into flesh accustomed only to the manhandling of nurses and doctors. They were strong and sure and instantly eased the tense muscles and tendons of her leg.

Callie sank back into her pillows and threw a small one over her face to stifle her groans. When she was positive she wouldn't loudly embarrass herself she sat up again to watch Arizona.

Her lips were curled into an unconscious little smile just barely masked by a curtain of blond hair. Her fingers danced across Callie's skin. Her eyes were dark with concentration.

And then she found a knot in Callie's calf she didn't even know had existed. She unconsciously groaned again in delight, too wrapped up in watching the way Arizona's brow furrowed in thought as she massaged the knot away.

The tail end of the groan turned unnecessarily saucy and Arizona looked up at her in wide eyed surprise. Callie whole face turned bright red and she flopped back into her pillows again in embarrassment.

"I guess I have a back up job if surgery ever stops working for me," Arizona teased.

"I refuse to be embarrassed by the noise I just made."

"Good," Arizona had moved like a lion back up to the head of the bed, "because that was a really sexy noise."

She pulled the pillow away from her face and appraised Arizona, "Really?"

Arizona bit her lip and her eyes crinkled with a that McDreamy look of hers, "Yeah."

She laced her fingers with Arizona's and brought her hand up so she could admire Arizona's. "It's these hands. They're kind of perfect." She kissed each finger in turn. "And they belong to a pretty perfect lady too." That dreamy smile was still plastered on Arizona's face so Callie tried kissing it away. "Can you stay tonight," she surprised herself by asking between kisses.

Arizona pulled back, "Your dad. I don't want to—"

"I'll deal with my dad."

That made Arizona look slightly panicked. She glanced down at Callie's still exposed leg. "But your leg."

"Arizona." She squeezed both of her hands. "I want you to stay."

Her dad was going to have to learn sooner rather than later. Every day she and Arizona were growing closer—drawing together like a braid. She definitely dreaded the conversation because her father could be incredibly protective and incredibly ornery. But she wasn't going to send Arizona home to make him feel comfortable. Not when her just being in the room eased every muscle in Callie's body.

"Please." She kept her voice just soft enough that she didn't sound like she was begging.

Arizona looked down at their joined hands. "Okay." She moved around so she sat up against the pillowed with Callie and then pulled her against her. "But I'm probably gonna sleep on the couch so I can run faster if he flips out."

"Hm, but for now you can sit right here with me."

Arizona kissed the top of her head, "I like that plan."