AN: Before you read this, there are at least eight things you need to know. Maybe more, maybe less. I haven't gotten that far yet.
Thing 1: Story starts after this bold section, so if you don't care what I have to say, scroll past the bold and on to the story.
Thing 2: I cried like six times writing this chapter, and when I went to reread it, I cried again. Alex Karev, you kill me.
Thing 3: Nancy Meyers, you've done it again, you saucy bitch.
Thing 4: I've cried literally every chapter. As I've been writing or reading or whatever. But this chapter the most.
Thing 5: Jessica Capshaw and Sara Ramirez are two of the most talented and beautiful people in the world. You can fight me if you disagree.
Thing 6: I have adopted Arizona's "I am a human rainbow" title for myself.
Thing 7: The writers of Grey's Anatomy did a terrible disservice to Arizona and Callie when they made Arizona cheat. I could get into it, but then I'll get all ranty.
Thing 8: I am getting a little disappointed by the lack of reviews. I appreciate them, a lot, am I posting too much? Do you still hate me because I am on Team Arizona? Do you hate me now that I've publicly picked a side in this dumb civil war in the CalZona fandom?
Thing 9: Every time I write something about Arizona enjoying oral sex from Callie it reminds me of the time that Callie asked Mark to teach her how to do it, and then Erica Hahn gave that beautiful "you're glasses" speech. Also Erica Hahn is a terrible person for saying you can't be a little gay. Anybody can be what they want to be, let the people fly their freak flag as high as they want Dr. Hahn, you're not the boss of them.
That is all the things. Enjoy.
It was late, later than they should be up, but neither of them wanted to give in to sleep, and Callie couldn't help the way that her fingers played with Arizona's. Sofia was curled into her left side and Arizona was pressed to her right, the three of them sharing the middle of the bed as if the edges would burn them.
And she loved it.
A thunderstorm was raging outside, as if Seattle could only exist in rain and thunder, and Sofia had crawled in with them. At least she was asleep. Both of her girls were terrified of thunderstorms. She knew why Arizona was, knew the horror that her wife had lived through, and knew that panic attacks and PTSD issues could arise, so she was fighting to stay awake for her wife who seemed to be trying to crawl into her body, and if Callie could she would let her. Sofia, on the other hand, she wasn't sure where the fear had come from, and Callie wondered if in their time apart, Arizona's fear had become Sofia's.
Every time the lightning flashed, Arizona would wince and jump, a whimper of fear escaping her lips, and every time the thunder cracked the staccato beat of rain, Callie would gather her into her arm and just hold as tightly as she could. Arizona had said that it helped, and though Callie had her doubts about the effectiveness of her arms warding off fear, she still held tight.
She would win the battle against sleep, because both Arizona and Sofia needed her to be the strong one on nights like this, and she would be. For them.
They rested in silence, save for soft snores from their daughter and the occasional whisper of fear from Arizona, weathering the storm together.
"Metaphorically, I am a good man in a storm," Arizona whispered into her shoulder, the warm breath playing over Callie's shirt, "But literally, not so much."
Callie hummed non committedly, the phrase of Colonel Daniel Robbins weighing heavily on her mind. After hearing the words from her own father and asking her wife about them, Callie had pondered the meaning. Eventually she had called and asked Daniel about them. Though before she had been able to have that conversation, Barbara, also known as mom, and she had talked for roughly forty seven minutes about recipes and cooking and thanksgiving.
While Daniel had not specifically asked her to call him dad, when it slipped out after he explained the phrase and what it meant to him, she had said "Thank you dad" and she heard the smile in his voice when he said you're welcome.
His words came back to her now. "When a ship is at sea, the men have only two things: each other and the boat. Storms happen at sea, dangerous, life-altering storms, that threaten life and limb, and you need a good man in a storm. Not a man who has been well trained, who knows the boat as well as he knows himself. But a man who knows his men and his boat and himself. A man who can look the storm in the face and say, not today. A man who doesn't give in to fear, who looks fear in face, and gathers the courage to keep looking, to keep looking and move forward. It was a phrase the Marine Corps used to describe my father."
And in his words Callie could see Arizona. Could see the doctor and surgeon and teacher she was, and the way that she didn't let anything phase her in the minute, in the storm to continue the metaphor. She didn't freeze, she protected her men.
But she also saw the Arizona that she herself had described to Carlos. The one who shrunk back, who had lost herself in the storm.
And they were two completely different women, yet somehow exactly the same. The same because Arizona had found her way out of the storm of those horrible three years, where they suffered trauma after trauma, heartache after heartache, loss after loss… and while Callie had blamed her for a while there for getting lost, she now realized that Arizona Daniel Robbins had been a good man in a storm the whole time. Sure she'd lost herself for a minute, but she came out. Battered and weathered, yes, but still strong and whole.
"It's okay to be scared of the storm, Arizona." She whispered to the top of her wife's head, "You can weather this."
"Mmm." Was the only answer she received.
The storm was petering out, moving away from their own lives and their home, and slowly her wife was relaxing at her side, the small tremors subsiding and leaving her wife. "When you hold me like this Callie, and Sofia too, I feel like I can weather anything. Even just knowing that you're here, and knowing that you'll be here gives me strength. I don't need your strength to carry me through, I don't need to lean on you to make it through. But I want it."
Callie pressed a lingering kiss to Arizona's temple and held on. She knew that Arizona didn't need her strength, she knew that Arizona was strong, stronger probably than even the blonde thought she was, but she would carry the load when Arizona asked. She didn't have to, but she wanted to.
"Can I ask you something?" She questioned, Arizona still resting against her cheek.
"Anything."
"A few times now, when we've been talking about our life and our future, you've said the word 'children,' as in more than one. And you said in therapy that you still wanted more kids with me. Is that something you still want?"
Callie was hesitant to bring this subject up. It had destroyed them, multiple times in so many different ways. The first time it was because Arizona hadn't wanted children, and Callie had pushed and pushed until Arizona was forced to end things between them. It was only years later that Callie had realized that Arizona had done it for her. That she had broken up with her so that Callie could follow her dream of being a mother and having children.
The second was her own inability to carry another child, and Arizona's subsequent miscarriage. They hadn't truly been there for each other those times. They had both been lost in themselves and their pain, and hadn't relied on each other like they were now.
The third and final time, had been the argument surrounding surrogacy and the fellowship and the continued decline of their ability to communicate effectively (or really even at all, not talking to each other about their thoughts and dreams and fears) that had led to the dissolution of their first marriage.
But it had been a lingering thought in the back of her mind and her heart. She had been truthful with Arizona when she'd said that she would be happy with just the three of them, and she was, and she would continue to be if it stayed this way. However, she couldn't deny that the thought of having another child with Arizona was appealing.
"Is it something you want Callie?" She was so incredibly happy that the hesitation and anger of past conversations like this was missing from Arizona's voice.
"I love our life now, truly I do."
"I believe you, and I feel the same way."
"But… sometimes, in my dreams and my daydreams, I still see a tiny baby boy, and he's got crazy curly hair that can never be tamed. And his eyes, his eyes are so much like his momma's that it takes my breath away. And Sofia is there, and she loves him. She reads to him, she plays with him, she holds his little hand."
"You see a boy? What's his name?"
"Timmy." Because that had been her only thought if they would've had a boy. She would have been happy, overjoyed, with either. But if they'd had a boy, she'd wanted to name him Timothy. Not Timothy Daniel, because Arizona and her brother shared that middle name, but definitely Timothy.
"For my brother?" The surprise and joy in Arizona's voice filled with Callie with love. How they'd never even talked about this during that time, Callie didn't know.
"No, for the first boy I kissed in seventh grade." She teased, pressing another kiss to Arizona's temple.
"Hmm, must have been some kiss to name your first born son after." Arizona teased back, lightly scratching the skin of Callie's stomach where her hand rested. "Our next girl will definitely have to be named Michelle."
"Yes, for your brother, you absolute dork." And Callie loved that Arizona huffed with indignation and lightly pinched her side.
"I want your dream to come true Callie, because you made gave me dreams that I had never wanted, and you made them come true. And I don't just want your dreams to come true for you, because they're my dreams too. But if we do this, if we decide that we want this, I need you to be okay with using a surrogate." And Callie was. Because she understood Arizona's loss. After watching April and Jackson with Samuel, and their hesitancy with Harriet, Callie couldn't handle that again either. While it would still be painful with a surrogate, Callie knew that they would lean on each other this time.
"Are we too old though? Let's just say we find a surrogate tomorrow, which is literally impossible, we'll be sixty by the time they graduate from high school. Seventy by the time they're done med school and enter surgical residency. Retired by the time they have their own children." Callie felt herself going slightly crazy.
"Are you panicking because our currently hypothetical child will lose us too early?"
She was, she totally was. "Maybe."
"Well, we still have the frozen embryos from last time, so finding someone to carry for us is the hardest part."
"Wait, art school guy? The professor? What did he look like again?"
"Typical caucasian dude, you said he was hot, I said he was almost as pretty as Mark, which you disagreed with, and since I was drunk on the wine I was never going to get to have again for two years, I agreed with you." Right, Callie remembered drunkenly teasing Arizona about her finding Mark attractive. For which she had received a shove that had spilled wine all over their new carpet and they'd had to get the steam cleaner out at one in the morning.
"What colour were his eyes?" Because now that she'd voice the dream of baby blue eyed Timothy, she wanted him.
"They were blue. You were insistent."
"I want a baby Arizona."
"That's literally what we're talking about." Arizona laughed softly.
"No, I mean I want your baby, as in your genetics. I've seen the pictures, you and Tim were adorable little fat babies, all big blue eyes and crazy blonde hair."
Sofia mumbled something in her sleep, and rolled so her back was now pressing against Callie's leg. But she slept on, her soft snores filling the silence once again.
"Don't forget to ask my parents what terrors we were."
"What? You mean you, Arizona Robbins, self-confessed monster and control freak, and your brother, six foot four All American boy-next-door, Marine Corps veteran weren't angels?" She said with mock surprise.
"Shut up Calliope." Arizona said with a laugh.
The storm outside had passed, and though it was still raining, the sound filling the room with a comforting beat against their window and roof. The storm of their past and this conversation was passing as well, leaving nothing behind in its wake except a quiet longing and hopefulness.
"Would you really want to name him Timmy? If we had a boy?"
"Yes." And she meant it. "That was the first time I saw you cry, outside of being mad at Richard. He was important to you, he was important to your family. Plus he's also named after your dad, so it's kind of a win-win, two birds situation."
"His middle name could be Carlos. Timothy Carlos Torres."
"Not Timothy Carlos Robbins-Torres?" Because if she was going to have a Robbins baby boy, she was going to do it right.
"This is ridiculous, and please know that I know that Callie, but a part of me wishes that Mark were still around to have been our sperm donor. He was pretty, and smart, and he's Sofia's daddy, and I just feel like it would be nice for Sof to have a genetic sibling. Which is absolutely ridiculous because Zola and Bailey and Ellis. And even my relationship with Sofia, we don't share DNA and she's as much my baby as she is yours and Mark's. But sometimes at the grocery store or the zoo or wherever and you're not around, I get the look. The look that says 'what's this ghost of a woman doing with a distinctly not ghost child.'"
The longer Arizona talked into her shoulder, the wider Callie felt her eyes widen in surprise. "Why have you never said that, about the racism?"
"Because I know she's mine. Everyone who matters knows she's mine. And most importantly, Sofia knows she's mine. I just wish the world were different. And this baby, the one we're talking about right now, even if he's a Robbins, he's still a Torres. He'll be your baby boy."
"Timothy Carlos Robbins-Torres." Callie whispered, this time pulling Arizona into a languid kiss, mindful of their daughter sleeping beside them.
"Are we really going to do this?" Arizona asked, resting her forehead against Callie's.
"Yes," Callie breathed, pressing another kiss to her wife's lips, feeling happy and overjoyed.
"I'm scared Calliope."
"Me too." And this was this difference this fourth time of having this discussion. Because they admitted it, they voiced it. They listened to each other, and they didn't hide their fear and insecurity about it, they shared and they would carry the burden of that fear together.
"Let's think about girls names tomorrow then, because just for tonight, I want to dream about Sofia and Timmy too."
888*
Ten months had gone by since that night, the night where Arizona and Callie decided to try to have another baby. The beginning of the journey had been rocky. They had in fact gone to the surrogacy agency the next day, and were quickly picked by a young woman. She was a mother of two herself, and had been a surrogate for another couple, twice. She was young, healthy, and had four successful pregnancies, and it seemed she brought her luck with her to Callie and Arizona. Because she got pregnant with the first implantation. But it seemed that Callie and Arizona had also brought their luck to her life, because she'd lost the first baby. It happens, a lot, Addison had said, with fertility treatments. As if Callie and Arizona didn't know that. That's exactly what had happened to them. But Addison didn't know that, how could she, they'd never told her the whole story.
The second implantation took as well. And they didn't tell anyone this time. Not even Sofia. Because she had cried with them when the surrogate lost the first, so this time they kept it to themselves, not willing to burden anyone else with heartbreak a second time.
And they had shared their heartbreak over the first time together. They carried each other through it. They had held a private funeral for a baby that didn't even exist. They had cried with each other, they held each other, they grieved with each other, and they got through it with each other. They also decided, with each other, that they would try three times more. No matter what, three times more. If they didn't get a baby out of it, well they were both happy with how their family was, just them, Callie and Arizona and Sofia. If they ended up having four children all together, well they would buy a different house. (But Arizona had said that they might have to build one because she needed this fireplace and this mantle, and Callie had agreed.)
But now it was eight months later and they still hadn't told anyone. Still not Sofia, not their friends, not their families, not any one. Because, and they would both deny it if you asked, they were still kind of afraid. Not of having the baby, no, that they were overjoyed about that, but about telling people. Things tended to go wrong when you told people about them. Especially babies. When April and Jackson had lost Samuel, the whole hospital had been affected. That's just the way they were.
Their surrogate was 34 weeks along and she was doing well. She went to all of her checkups, she took all of her vitamins, she didn't drink or do drugs, she did her homework (she was studying to be a nurse), she took care of her own kids. She was healthy and she was happy and she was pregnant, and she planned to stay that way for the next seven weeks.
And if this were a movie or a television show, an ominous voice over would say "Because life always goes according to plan."
Arizona Robbins
Today was a great day. She'd delivered two healthy and happy baby boys to two happy and proud sets of parents. She's performed what was now a routine maternal fetal surgery and had been able to keep that baby cooking.
But today was an especially good day because, well just because. There was nothing special about this day. She was happy because her wife was happy, she was happy because Sofia was enjoying the third grade and she and Zola were working hard to prepare for the Spring Science fair, not bugs again, thank god, but electricity. She was happy because Andrew and Meredith seemed happy, and she knew that they were happy because they had been having sex, and she knew that because they'd hidden in her house to do it. Twice.
She was happy because her new baby, which they had decided not to find out the sex of, was healthy and happy and so was their surrogate, Katie. She was happy, her kids and her husband was happy. Sure there were some unhappy people in the hospital, patients and friends, and she felt for them, but Arizona was just happy. She hadn't been this happy in a long time.
When her pager beeped with a 911 to the pit, she was so happy that she didn't feel ominous. She didn't get a sense of panic, she just rushed to the ER, hoping that she would be able to help whoever it was that needed help, because she loved being able to look parents in the eyes and tell them that their baby was going to be just fine, to look at husbands or wives or partners or boyfriends and tell them that the mother of their child was also going to be just fine.
Once in the ER she looked at the admitting nurse who just held up three fingers. It was a good system that April had implemented. It made shouting across the ER unnecessary, and was a quick and efficient way for the ER staff to direct the surgeons.
Pulling open the curtain for bed three, her entire world stopped. The happy bubble she had been living in popped. No, it shattered, because all Arizona could think was "not again."
There on the bed, surrounded by surgeons, by her friends, was Katie. Amelia was doing a neuro exam, Owen and April and Meredith were rushing on about abdominal bleeding, Alex and Jo were talking about the baby, residents were scattered doing their bidding and she had to stop and close her eyes and breathe and count down from ten, to push down the panic and bile that had risen in her throat.
10. Breathe in.
9. Not again. Please not again.
8. Breathe out.
7. Don't think about the sonogram picture you've been carrying for six months.
6. Breathe in.
5. April saw it that one time, but luckily it had Nelson, K. as the patient. Luckily April had accepted her flimsy excuse of why she was carrying a worn sonogram picture in her pocket.
4. Breathe out.
3. April is saying your name, Arizona. But you need to finish counting. You are a good man in a storm, and this is going to be a fucking hurricane.
2. Breathe in.
1. Now Owen is saying your name.
Just. Breathe.
"Robbins, what's wrong?" Owen snapped at her, but she didn't have time for him. She needed Calliope right now. But her wife was in surgery.
"Wilson, when was the last time you did a hip replacement?" She asked, her doctor voice coming out. It was how she was going to function until Callie got here.
Jo's eyes snapped to her, confusion written over her face. She didn't know that the baby she and Alex were talking about was going to be her new niece or nephew. Neither did Alex.
"Wilson!" She demanded.
"Last year, Dr. Robbins." These people were professionals, they knew something was going on with her, Arizona wasn't blind to the way she hadn't moved, hadn't rushed in. Because she wasn't allowed to.
"Please go to OR 4 and take over for Dr. Torres. Tell her Katie has been in an accident."
Arizona watched the way that Jo looked at the other five who all simply nodded at her, and she rushed off. She would learn if she would be an aunt again, or not, soon enough.
"Robbins what the hell is going on?" Alex demanded, Meredith casting a glance at her. "Get in here and help!"
"I can't," she started, because they still hadn't told them about Katie. Or their pregnancy. "Can someone please page Dr. Turner." Turner used to be her OB fellow. He was a good surgeon, he could do this. She really wanted Addison to be here, but she knew that Addison wouldn't make it. She wished, for the thousandth time, that Nicole Herman was here.
"Robbins, dude, what the hell are you just standing there for. The baby is in distress. Help us." Karev shouted at her, and she winced at his words and his tone. She'd already broken hospital protocol once for her children, and it had almost killed her. Those few seconds until Sofia's heart started beating, she could have sworn she died along with them.
"I can't help you Dr. Karev." They all looked at her strangely, she felt the ice picks of Alex's glare piercing her entire being. "The patient's name is Katie Nelson, and I can't help you Dr. Karev because she is carrying my baby."
All five of them stopped. All five of them paused for just a second, just a second for understanding to wash over their faces, just a second for the panic she felt down to her toes to burst full fledged on to their faces. And then the world exploded into motion, a broken jumble of sounds and syllables and not again, please god, not again floating around her.
"Reroute Turner to the OR, let's move people."
And they were gone. If Arizona hadn't had to step to the side so they could rush Katie and her baby to the OR, she was sure that she would not have moved at all.
Jo Wilson
Dr. Robbins' request had been strange, almost as strange as Dr. Robbins had been. But she trusted the woman, trusted that what she had sent her to do was important, trusted the nods of her friends when they confirmed that she should go.
So she went.
Grabbing a plain surgical cap, her own being put in the hospital laundry, she stepped through the scrub room and grabbed a mask and began scrubbing in, recounting the steps of a hip replacement in her head, visualizing the moves in the four minutes she had to scrub her hands and arms.
When she stepped into the surgical theatre, Dr. Torres' back was to her, but the music was playing loudly, Led Zeppelin she thought, and Dr. Torres was dancing as she performed surgery.
Jo gestured to the nurse by the iPod dock, and she shut the music down.
"What the hell?" Callie had asked the nurse, and Jo asked to be gowned and gloved. She had decided to relay Dr. Robbins message after she saw where Callie was in the process. She'd never seen Dr. Robbins like that, and she was worried about Dr. Torres.
"Wilson, what the hell?" Callie demanded.
"I'm to take over for you Dr. Torres, please tell where you are in the procedure." Ensuring that she kept her hands in the surgical field, she walked over and saw that she could finish this. It was a routine surgery, and Dr. Torres had been an excellent teacher.
"Seriously Wilson, what the hell."
"Dr. Robbins sent me." And thankfully, that had been enough for Callie to take a step back and explain where she was and what she was doing. Jo made sure to listen intently.
After Callie had finished, Jo took her place as lead surgeon and with a firm look into her friends eye she said, and though she didn't know why she was doing this, she trusted Dr. Robbins, her friend Arizona, "Dr. Robbins is in the ER, bed 3, she said to tell you Katie has been in an accident."
And she didn't get to find out what it meant, or why it was important for her to finish this surgery, because Callie's eyes widened as she ripped off her own gown and gloves and ran from the OR.
"Let's turn the music back on, shall we?"
Meredith Grey
She could not believe that this was happening again, especially when Callie and Arizona had been so happy lately. Though Callie wouldn't explain why she was suddenly beaming and extra happy all the time, but Meredith knew know.
This patient, Katie Nelson, was theirs now. She was a part of this family. And so was this baby. They would work as hard on Katie as they would on anyone, but all of them, even Alex who was kind of starting to panic now, but she only knew that he was panicking because she knew Alex, would take that extra step, move to extraordinary lengths to keep this baby, and keep Katie, alive. Because they belonged to them now.
"Did they tell any of you? Grey? Kepner?" Hunt asked, and all the eyes in the OR turned to her and Kepner, who were working side by side, trying desperately to keep mother and child alive.
"No," was all Kepner said, keeping her focus on the body in front of her. And though Meredith could see the tears gathered in her eyes, Kepner continued to fight for Katie. She could also hear Kepner praying under her breath, the words slipping easily from behind the surgical mask.
Finally, Turner arrived and moved immediately to the fetal monitor that was beeping. It seemed low to Meredith, but she wasn't sure. Alex seemed to be concerned, and though it was hidden by his scrub cap, she could see the way his brow furrowed. It was his doctor furrow, not his regular Alex Karev furrow.
"I can't believe none of us knew that they were having a baby." Amelia said, her focus on Katie's exposed brain.
The chatter continued, about Callie and Arizona and the new baby, but Meredith ignored them. Babies and this hospital didn't mix. Not one of the children born to any of her friends or even her own children, had had a normal birth. These halls were fucking cursed.
"Shit, Sofia!" She exclaimed suddenly, finally remembering the elder child of her friends, her daughter's best friend. "Cynthia, come grab my phone out of my back pocket please."
The scrub nurse did as she asked, and then dictated the text to the sitter who was picking up Zola. Please bring your ID to pick up Zola today, I need you to grab Sofia as well. -M
It wasn't a second before she got a response. Zola and Sofia, got it Dr. Grey. -J
"Every quiet down," she demanded of the room and thankfully they all did.
Cynthia held the phone up on speaker between her and Kepner who was still praying. "Margaret Murie Elementary School, Janice speaking, how may I help you?"
"Hi Janice, this is Dr. Grey calling on behalf of Dr. Torres and Dr. Robbins."
"Hello there Dr. Grey. What can I do for you?"
"Dr. Torres and Dr. Robbins won't be able to pick Sofia Sloan-Torres up today, can you please send her home with Zola and my sitter Jenny?"
"Jenny isn't on the approved list for Sofia, Dr. Grey."
"I'm aware Janice, but Dr. Torres and Dr. Robbins have had an emergency come up, and I am on the approved list."
"Okay Dr. Grey, remind Jenny to bring her ID."
"Yes, thank you Janice."
Cynthia hung up the phone and was just about to put it down when Meredith got her to send one more text, to both Callie and Arizona. Jenny is getting Sofia when she gets Zola. -M
"That was kind of you Mer," Hunt said.
"Well there isn't much I can do for them right now. They're out there, freaking out about a baby that they didn't tell us about, we're all freaking out right now trying to save Katie and this baby, and she's our family now too. We have to help our family."
Because that was the truth. It was weird that they were a family, that they needed each other as much as they did. But both Callie and Arizona had been there before in the past, and they would be there for her again. They were a freaking village. And villages need each other. And Meredith was frustrated that she couldn't do more than try to save Katie. So she took care of them the only way she knew how, by saving Katie and their baby, and by taking care of Sofia.
As Cynthia was reading the text she got from Arizona, thanks -A Turner and Karev both started shouting.
"Decels, we have to get the baby out now!"
Carlos Torres
Carlos hated New York in the spring. It was all slushy and wet and dirty. He missed the shores of his Miami estate, the sprawling lawns that abutted the ocean, the salty spray and smell was home. This barren and concrete wasteland was a terrible ode to a city and he couldn't fathom the reason almost ten million people called it home.
It was ridiculous.
But mercifully his meeting was finished and he could head back to Miami now. Back to his wife and his step-daughter, back to a place where looking at the ground didn't make him feel like muttering like a grumpy old man.
In the town car on the way to the airport, his phone rang, a picture of his beautiful daughter Calliope and her wife and their daughter filled the screen. It was one of the ones Calliope had sent him, and Carlos was thankful that they were only smiling, he'd seen the way that the pictures on their phones involved kissing, and while he accepted Calliope for who she was, and her wife, kissing was asking a bit much.
Even if he had cried at their wedding.
"Hola mija, como estas?"
"Hola papa, where are you?" Carlos knew that she was in trouble. When they talked on Sunday's, his daughter could jabber away in Spanish for hours and hours. Sofia, his beautiful granddaughter, was working her way up to that level of fluency, but both reverted to English when tough subjects came up.
"I'm in New York, I had a meeting but it is finished now. What's wrong Calliope?"
"Daddy, Arizona and I decided to have another baby, but she was in an accident and they aren't sure if the surrogate is going to make it." And though Calliope's voice was strong and sure, he could hear the tears in her voice.
"Oh mija, I'm so sorry. I will pray for her, and for your baby."
"Can you come, daddy?"
"Yes, I will call the airport right away, change the flight plan to Seattle." He would miss Lucia's dinner party, but Carlos could remember when Arizona called him nine years ago and the panic that she had felt because of the danger Calliope and Sofia had been in. He remembered the way that she had been hesitant to call him, had sounded afraid of calling him, but he would be there for his daughter this time. Both of them.
"Can you stop in Boston and pick up Arizona's parents?"
"Of course mija, see you soon."
Barbara and Daniel Robbins
"Daniel, honey, Arizona is calling." Her husband grumbled for a brief second, having just sat down in his favourite chair for a brief nap before dinner. They were getting older now, she and Daniel, but no matter the time of day or the reason for the call, they always had time for their daughter.
And her daughter had always been a daddy's little girl. All blonde pigtails and skinned knees, a bouncing ball of energy that often exasperated Barbara, but she took to Daniel like stink on a mule. And he was exactly the same way. And Barbara wouldn't have it any differently.
Answering the call and placing it on speaker phone, she and Daniel said "Hello Sweets," at the same time, and she swore that she swooned a little when he smiled at her. Forty-five years of marriage later, and she was still so in love with this man.
"Hey mom and dad," their daughter said, but Daniel had bristled at the tone, his gruff voice asking "What's wrong Arizona?"
Her baby girl hiccuped once, a trait she'd had ever since she was a child and was trying not to cry. "Arizona, sweetie, it's okay."
"Callie and I are having a baby." Barbara gasped, this should be good news! But the way that Daniel bristled again at the hiccup worried her, but they both knew that sometimes Arizona got like this when she was upset. That their girl was a good man in a storm, and these pauses were so she could gather herself.
"Our surrogate was in an accident, and they're not sure if they're going to make it. Katie or the baby." Barbara's heart sputtered and started again, at the pained sound of Arizona's voice and the way that Daniel's face fell and was instantly controlled again.
"Do you need us, Sweets?" Daniel asked.
"Yes please."
"We'll book tickets for the next flight out, Sweets, we'll be there for you and Callie and Sofia as fast as we can." Barbara said, dragging Daniel behind her so she could get on the google and start finding tickets.
"Carlos is flying to Boston in his jet right now, from New York to stop and pick you up. Callie texted you his number so call him to get the information."
Barbara knew that Daniel wasn't fond of the man, but he'd do anything for his baby girl. Would go to war for her, would scale mountains, would drain the oceans if he could, he'd accept this help to get to his daughters and granddaughter faster.
He too was a good man in a storm.
Miranda Bailey
Something was happening in the hospital, she could feel it. Bailey didn't know what it was or who was causing the problem, but it seemed like a lightbulb was going to go out. It had that hum of fluorescent lights, where they kind of crackle a little bit, just to let you know something was wrong. It hadn't started flickering yet, but Bailey was going to find it and she was going to fix it.
Because she was the chief. That was her job.
Her rounds took her to the surgical floor, and she was surprised to find it full of people. Nurses and residents and attendings and interns, all looking doom and gloom. She knew it wasn't one of her people, she'd have been paged.
But at least she'd found the problem.
"DeLuca," she said, catching the ridiculously tall man's attention, and every one turned to her as well, "What's going on?"
"We're uh, waiting Chief Bailey. We're waiting."
"Who y'all waiting for?" Because the last time she found a scene like this Izzie Stevens had been under the knife. And Kepner had been under the knife. And Grey.
It was Schmitt who answered, "Katie, Dr. Bailey. We're waiting for Katie."
"Who is Katie?" She asked, she knew the names of every surgeon and nurse in this hospital. There was no Katie.
"She's Arizona's and, sorry, I mean she's Dr. Robbins and Dr. Torres' surrogate, Dr. Bailey." DeLuca almost looked like he was about to cry.
"Robbins and Torres are having a baby?" How did she not know this? She was the chief, she was supposed to know everything.
And though no one had said it, the echoes of maybe hung in the air; the unwanted answer to her unwelcome question.
Silence fell in that uncomfortable maybe, the surgeons and nurses milling about the OR board quiet and contemplative, and Miranda Bailey knew why it felt like a light had gone out.
"So we'll wait."
Alex Karev
Alex could remember what it was like when Sofia was born. He was reminded of it every time he hung out with the little squirt. He didn't know how to save her. Robbins had done that. Robbins had come in and saved Sofia and he watched and he learned.
But he saved this baby. He'd spent eleven years learning from her, and not because he couldn't save Sofia, but because Robbins had seen something in him from the very first moment they had met, and she took the time to teach him, to coach him through becoming a doctor, a good doctor for kids and for babies, and he used everything she had ever given him to make sure that he could save this baby.
But he hadn't even needed to do much this time around. This baby was further along than Sofiahad been, and it was strong and healthy and surprisingly big for how far along it had been. This baby was going to be okay. Not because of him, Alex knew that, but because Robbins and Torres finally needed something good to happen to them when it came to the birth of their kids. So he'd been there, and he ran through everything that Robbins had ever taught him, had ever forced him to learn, had ever forced him to learn by himself, because Robbins loved him.
And because he loved her. She was the big sister that he'd never known he'd wanted or needed. They all were, Robbins and Torres and Mer and Shepherd and Pierce, they had all taken him into their lives and they loved him. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve Robbins, and saving this baby wasn't to earn her love, because he already had that, but he was thankful for her.
But now he needed to find her, to find them, so they could meet their new baby, who'd probably also call him Uncle Alex, and even if he was crying thinking like that, he didn't care. Well, he didn't care a lot. He was holding the baby in his arms, his fellow following close behind with the NICU bed. The baby was strong, but it would need to be put back in the bed soon, but Robbins and Torres could hold it for a little bit first. Plus, he and Robbins were the two best pediatric surgeons on the west coast, or so she said, and the fellow was coming along nicely. In fact, he'd probably brought more than they'd need.
But the baby was safe in his arms, just as safe as it would be if it were in either of it's moms.
And he knew where they'd be, too. So looking for them hadn't taken long at all. Because normally they hung out in the NICU, but they hadn't been up there when he was checking out the baby, making sure all fingers and toes were accounted for, doing everything he needed to do for premature babies. So he knew that Robbins and Torres were in the deserted hallway down in the tunnels. He'd found them there, making out like the gross people they were, a couple of times.
And there they were, huddled together on the same gurney, both softly crying and not speaking. Not that there was much to say.
It was Torres that looked up at the sound of his footsteps, the NICU bed and his fellow following close behind. He could tell the moment she saw the baby in his arms, the way her tears stopped and she sat up straighter.
And for the first time that he could ever remember, he said her name. "Arizona."
She looked up at him, surprise and shock all rolled into one, and she gave him that same smile she did whenever she told him she was proud of him, and her tears stopped too.
He stopped in front of them, not knowing who he was supposed to give the baby to, but Torres gestured to Robbins, so he bent forward and transferred it into Robbins' arms and he said "Arizona, I'd like you to meet your son."
AN: So I got some complaints about the wedding chapter, and while they weren't negative, I am choosing to address them now. Because as you've just read, I did the same thing here. In my opinion, Grey's Anatomy is the story about a village. Dysfunctional at times, but still a collection of individuals whose lives are entwined. Love and friendship are at the heart of the story of this Seattle hospital, and though this story is a Callie/Arizona story, it's also about their lives with each other and with Sofia. And it's also about Alex and April and Meredith and Maggie and Andrew and Jackson and Richard and Miranda and Jo and Addison and Owen and Teddy and Amelia. And it's also about Mark, and it's about Derek. It's about all of them. Because to me, they are a family. Meredith's comments at the custody trial, about them being a village were probably what swayed the judge to grant custody to Arizona. It wasn't because Callie was a bad mom, it was because Arizona would stay in Seattle, would stay where the established support system was. GSM is their village. The people whose lives we follow are their village. That's what I've been trying to do. I hope you like it.