A half hour later, Arizona reentered her girlfriend's room with her mother and brother to find her girlfriend sleeping peacefully with their son in his basinet next to her.
"Maybe we should hang out in the waiting room? Let her sleep?" Tim suggested.
Arizona nodded her head, "That's a great idea. Let's take Ace for a walk and let her sleep. I'm gunna let the nurse know so she can let Calliope know."
Arizona hit the call button for the nurse while pulling the Boba Wrap from the diaper bag and securing her son in it. When the nurse entered the room, Arizona let he know they were going to take Ace for a walk around the ward while Callie slept and ask that they be found when Callie woke.
As the Robbins family walked around the ward, Arizona stopped as she noticed a semi familiar face.
"Aria?" Arizona called out, "Can I help you?"
The brunette turned to the group of blondes, "Arizona, hi, um… I was… Can we talk? Alone?"
Arizona began unwrapping the infant from her chest and handed him to Barbara, "Momma, take him back to Calliope, please?"
"Are you sure?" The older woman raised her brow, "I can stay with you."
"No, I'm fine, Momma. Besides, he might be getting hungry again soon, bring him back to Calliope and if she's up, tell her I will be there soon." Arizona watched her family walk away before turning back to Callie's sister, "I ask again, can I help you?"
"I want- no, I need to apologize to you. The things I said, I was so very out of line. I was hoping that, if I took my parents' side on Calliope's relationship and took back coming out, tell them I would do therapy or whatever, they would welcome me back home. I… I can't do this alone, Arizona. I need my family and I tried to use you as an excuse to get back into their good graces and it was horrible of me."
"Calliope talked to your mother, this morning," Arizona motioned for the younger Torres sister to take a seat next to her. "It would seem that the whole 'gay's not ok' thing is mostly, if not all of, your father's doing. Your mother has apologized to Calliope and would like to do the same to you. She wants to have her daughters back, and get to know her grandson."
"Really?!That's great!"
Arizona held up a hand, "Your mother knows I am transgender, she, though a little confused at first, doesn't seem to have a problem with it. But you? You called me a freak, you belittled me in the home I share with your sister, and come tomorrow with share with your nephew. We don't have to like each other Aria, but we will respect each other. You will not use words like freak or anything like that when referring to me, again."
"Arizona, I swear-"
"Most people think I'm named after the state, Arizona. Not that you have the right to know, but I was originally named James Daniel; James was the name of my grandfather who died while serving on The USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. He saved 19 men, Aria, 19 before he drowned. And when I came out to my mother, after my father passed away, she told me that my father, Colonel Daniel Robbins of the United States Marine Corps would have been proud to call me his daughter. So, to honor that, after deciding to pursue transitioning and changing my name, I felt the need to still honor my grandfather by choosing the name Arizona Danielle." Arizona stopped for a moment to gauge Aria's initial reaction. "My family believes in Country the way your family believes in God, and yet, my family thinks that my father would have been fine with his son coming out as his daughter in a career that may not have accepted me. And, if your mother, who is devotedly Catholic, can accept me as a person and as her grandson's mother, then you can, too."
Aria turned in her seat to fully face Arizona, "Arizona, I swear to you, I do respect you. I wish I could take back the way I reacted when I found out about your transition. I've had time to process, I've talked to Addison, I understand it, Arizona. I'm so unbelievably happy that my sister has found love with you and that she is getting the family she has always wanted. I will spend the rest of my life apologizing to you if that's what you'd like. I want to be in your life, Callie's life, and my nephew's life."
Both women were silent a moment, each contemplating the other's words. Finally, Arizona stood and considered Aria.
"Why don't we head to your sister's room? With any luck, Ace will be up and hopefully done with nursing and you'll be able to see him before he does the boring baby thing and fall back to sleep."
Three days later, Callie and Arizona lay in bed after finally getting Ace to sleep. The small boy seemed to not want to sleep at night since coming home. It wasn't colic or anything; it would seem he just didn't want to miss any time with his mothers.
"I hate to be the one to say this, but if he's gunna be up, I wish he would cry. At least then he'd probably tire himself out." Callie groaned as she leaned back onto her pillow, "What kind of 5 day old doesn't cry and refuses to sleep? I don't understand. I feel like I've been awake since he was born."
There was a full minute of silence before Callie looked over at her girlfriend to find the blonde woman sound asleep.
"Great, so now everyone is asleep but me."
"Not everyone."
Callie's head slowly turned to the doorway where her mother stood, "Mami, why are you up? It's three in the morning."
"I got up to use the bathroom and heard you talking," Lucia peered into the basinet. "You finally got him to sleep?"
"Mhm," Callie mumbled as she closed her eyes. "I don't get why he doesn't want to sleep."
Lucia laughed as she sat on the bed next to her daughter, "You and Aria were both the same way. Your Abuela taught me a trick. The next time he wakes up, because I don't want to wake him up to do this, you flip him."
"I'm sorry," Callie eyed her mother, "Flip him?"
"Yes, flip him, head over heels. I know you're a doctor and you believe in science but look it up. It worked with you and Aria, neither of you would sleep at night. No matter what I tried, waking you up for feedings, keeping your days action packed, keeping nights dark and quiet, more formula at each feeding; I was ready to rip my hair out." Lucia and Callie both laughed, "Anyway, Abuela Maria would pick you up and flip you forward. That very night, you had your usual bottle around 8 pm and you were sound asleep before I could even get you to let out a sufficient burp and slept until 4 in the morning. You were less than a month old and sleeping through the night."
"But newborns eat every 2 to 3 hours."
Lucia waved off Callie's comment, "I never believed in waking you to eat, if you were hungry, you would have woken up and let it be known. Same with moving you from where you fell asleep, if you were uncomfortable, you would not have fallen asleep in the first place. Do whatever you feel is right, Calliope, you and Arizona are his parents but this is a small bit of advice from your old mother who raised two children. I'm also willing to bet if you asked Barbara, she'd tell you the same things I have. Now, get some sleep, Mija, no one knows when that beautiful boy will be up again."
It wasn't more than 2 hours later, just 5 am when Ace woke up with a wail. Arizona shot up when she heard her son cry and attempted to stand from the bed. The next thing Callie knew, she was sitting up on bed having heard a loud thump, Arizona groaning, and Ace crying.
"What the hell is going on?" Peering to Arizona's side of the bed, Callie saw a pale hand waving, "Arizona? Why are you on the floor?"
"I only have one leg."
Callie raised a brow as she leaned over the side of the bed to eye the blonde, "And…?"
Arizona groaned again, lifting herself up a bit, "I forgot I only have one leg, I jumped out of bed to get Ace and now I am on the floor and Ace is still crying."
Callie couldn't help but giggle as she slowly climbed out of bed and picked up her son, "Oh, Ace, Mommy is a special one. When you get older, you'll notice that she only has one leg and apparently, she sometimes forgets this."
"Can you please stop making fun of the one legged woman and maybe help me up instead?"
Callie held Ace securely to her body with one arm as she reached the other out hand to help her girlfriend up and into the bed, "Are you good here? Do you need anything before I change him?"
"I'm fine unless they've found some kind of medicine to heal wounded pride."
"Mmm, nope, not yet," Callie smiled, "Anyway, I'm gunna head to the nursery and grab a diaper, we'll be back."
Ten minutes later, Callie came strolling back into the bedroom with a wide awake Ace in her arms.
"Is he wide awake?" Arizona asked.
"He wouldn't be Ace Daniel Robbins if he was sleeping," Callie spoke softly as she climbed into bed next to the blonde. "Mami said something about flipping him. Have you heard of anything like that? You're a baby surgeon, you should know all these old wives' tales."
"Yeah, I've had a few mothers who swear by it, a couple who want to try but are scared shitless that they might drop their baby. Momma had to do it with Timothy, he never slept. You wanna give it a try with Ace?"
Callie shrugged, "It's worth a shot. Let me nurse him then we can try?"
"Flip first, nurse later, we don't want him puking everywhere."
Callie handed Ace over to her girlfriend, "Well, get to flippin' woman. I ain't gunna risk droppin' my baby boy."
"Oh, so instead let me do it and if we have to rush him to the hospital say what? Oh, sorry, my wife only has one leg and that makes holding a baby harder?"
"Wife…"
"What? Who's wife?"
Callie turned to her girlfriend, "No, you just said wife. Your exact words were 'my wife only has one leg'. So, I say again, wife?"
Arizona clapped her hands before taking the baby from Callie's hands, "Let's flip this boy!"
Arizona slowly stood, laying Ace on the bed so she could steady herself on her one good leg. She picked up the small boy, who once again was just happily looking around the room even though he couldn't see much of anything. The blonde smiled, she couldn't believe she'd made this gorgeous child. After giving the baby a kiss, Arizona proceeded to gently flip the boy, head over heels, the way her mother had done with Timothy and, apparently, Lucia had done with both Callie and Aria.
"Alrightly, little man, time to let Momma feed you and then bed time," Arizona laughed as she handed the infant off to Callie to nurse.
The next thing Arizona is aware of is the unusual feeling of sun shining on her face, they live in Seattle after all, and it's February. The blonde cracks open an eye to see Callie sleeping peacefully next to her, she then leans up on her arm and looks over Callie to see the basinet empty. Her next move was to grab her cell phone from the bedside table and check the time.
"Shit!" Arizona rolled back toward Callie, "Calliope, wake up, it's almost 10."
"Still sleepy, five more minutes," Callie whined as she pulled the blanket over her head.
Arizona ripped the blanket from the brunette's sleepy form, "Ace isn't in his basinet, we didn't get back to sleep until after 6, he's gunna be hungry."
"What, where is he?" Callie shot up to see her son not in his basinet.
"I assume either your mother or sister got him while we were sleeping." Arizona reached for her crutches, she really needed to give her prosthetic a break. "Let's go find our boy."
Upon reaching the living room, Callie and Arizona smiled, there on the couch was Lucia singing her grandson a Spanish lullaby as he lay contently in her arms. Callie soon began to hum along before sitting next to her mother and singing along.
Duérmete mi niño, duérmete mi amor
duérmete pedazo de mi corazón.
Este niño mío que nació de noche
quiere que lo lleve a pasear en coche.
Este niño mío que nació de día
quiere que lo lleve a la dulcería.
Duérmete mi niño, duérmete mi amor
duérmete pedazo de mi corazón.
"Buenas dias, Mami," Callie spoke as she kissed her mother on the cheek.
"Good morning, Mija, Arizona. Did you sleep well?"
Arizona slowly made her way to the chair across from Callie and Lucia, "Best four hours of my life. Where is Aria?"
Lucia handed Ace to Callie for the younger brunette to nurse the boy, "She went to the store to get some things to make Calliope her favorite dish for dinner tonight."
Callie's head shot up as Ace latched on and began to suckle, "Birria?!"
"Yes, she's even getting the ingredients for horchata."
"What's birria and horchata?" Arizona asked, face full of confusion.
"Birria is kinda like a Mexican beef stew. We used to have it on special days; holidays, birthdays, baptisms, weddings, stuff like that. Mami used to make it with goat but when I realized what was in it, I refused to eat it anymore. Mostly because my Abuelita had a goat, I loved that goat. He was like having a puppy; he would play fetch, lay in the sun with me, he was the best. Then, one day, I noticed the goat missing and Abuela was making birria, I was mortified and refused to eat it, since then, Mami makes it with beef for me."
Lucia laughed gleefully, "I remember that day, walking into the kitchen and poor Calliope was on the floor screaming. Aria was standing there, staring at her sister, 'Que pasa, hermanita? No llores. Que pasa?' and my mother in law informed me she told Calliope that Jorge the goat was going to be dinner."
"She named the goat after Abuelo! He was my best friend and she named him after my grandfather who was a complete and utter jerk and then cooked the goat!"
Arizona smiled, "Poor Calliope, it's ok. We'll just eat cow instead."
"Yes! Cow is ok, I've never had a pet cow, I can eat cow. Anyway, horchata is a drink. It's rice water, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar. It's so good!"
"Rice water?" Arizona raised a brow.
Lucia nodded and explained that horchata was rice and water blended together, then strained so the rice was separated and then the water was mixed with the other ingredients. Arizona was very intrigued and excited to try this new food and drink.
Just then, Aria came in the door with arms full of bags, "Yeah, don't anyone rush to help or anything, I got all this!"
Arizona began to stand, crutches secured to her forearms, "I'll help."
"Seriously, Arizona," Aria pointed to the blonde's crutches, "You don't have to."
"Nah, it's all good. I've gotten awesome with these things, pass me a couple of bags and show me how to make this birria and horchata stuff."
Callie smiled as her girlfriend and sister made their way into the kitchen, chatting along the way. She was so excited to at least have her mother and sister here, helping with her son. The brunette made a mental note to call Barbara and Timothy to invite them for dinner. This was what she had always wanted, a big family, and she finally had it.
After nursing Ace, Callie entered the kitchen, "Arizona, he's done eating, do you want to burp him while I help Aria put all this stuff away?"
"Absolutely, pass me my boy," Arizona sat in a chair at the kitchen table, "Can you call my mom and ask if her and Tim wanna come by for dinner? Aria said she bought enough to feed a small army."
"Well, I don't know about an army but at least enough for two Marine lieutenants and maybe the rest of us…" Aria laughed.
