Tim's knee replacement surgery was textbook. After Sawyer suctioned away the useless cartilage, Callie proceeded with the replacement without any complications. As she worked, she thought back to the last knee replacement she'd done. Weeks ago, before she'd started on the trial, and how she'd thought she'd be making the procedure obsolete with her artificial cartilage. When Arizona had pressed her about it the night before, as they lay in bed after a round of celebrating, she'd admitted that it did sting, to lose all of her hard work. But that little sting was nothing compared to how fantastic it felt to be able to get Tim back in Arizona's life. Plus, the doctor she'd sent her research to, John, was her friend. She knew he would credit her as a collaborator when he pushed through with the cartilage. She'd still get partial credit. It wasn't quite as impressive as being the sole creator of groundbreaking medical technology, but it was better than nothing. And, as she'd assured Arizona repeatedly, so totally and completely worth it.

Tim was discharged from the hospital four days later. Arizona had steered clear of his room since their short conversation, which had surprised Callie. She felt like Arizona and Timothy had come to an understanding from the talk she'd overheard. She'd expected Arizona to want to visit him. So when she'd mentioned over breakfast that Tim was being discharged that day, and Arizona simply nodded, Callie stopped poking at her eggs, set down her fork, and turned to face her wife.

"What is it?" Callie asked.

"What's what?" Arizona replied, seeming genuinely confused.

"What's going on in your head?" Callie clarified. "About your brother? You haven't visited him, you haven't even mentioned him since Wednesday. When he leaves today, you won't see him for months. I expected you to want to make the most of this time. To want to say goodbye."

Arizona sighed. "What if it's not months?"

"Sorry?" Callie asked.

"What if he's not gone for months? What if he's gone forever?" Arizona continued. "What if he can't figure out a way to come back to us and we never see him again? What if you gave up your trial for nothing? What if -"

"Whoa, easy," Callie said, cutting Arizona off.

Arizona wiped roughly at her face. "I got used to him being gone, Callie."

"So you're afraid to get attached to him and get your hopes up?" Callie surmised. "You're afraid of losing him again?"

Arizona nodded. "It's such a horrible way to say thank you for what you did for me. Avoiding him," Arizona bit her lip. "But I'm scared."

Callie's hand slid over Arizona's. "If he doesn't come back… yeah, that'll suck," she admitted. "And I'll be more than a little annoyed that we lost the trial for nothing. But I've talked to him about this. He has plans, ideas, for how to go about setting up his new life. He's not taking this lightly." Callie paused and looked at Arizona seriously. "I really think you should come say goodbye today. Because if he doesn't come back… I think what'll hurt the most will be the fact that you had a chance to say goodbye and you didn't. That'll hurt more than losing him again."

Arizona's hand slipped against Callie's stomach as she lifted her wife's hand and kissed it. "The baby has made you wise," she smiled.

Callie laughed. "Yes, that's it. You either get morning sickness or wisdom. It's one or the other I hear." Callie had yet to have any real pregnancy symptoms, and she was hoping to keep that trend going for as long as possible.

"Don't jinx it," Arizona chided, pulling Callie in for a kiss. "Thank you," she whispered against her lips. "Can I come with you when you discharge him today?"

Callie nodded. "Of course."

Callie and Arizona entered into Tim's room to find him dressed in street clothes, and finishing with the packing of his bag. His knee was strapped into a heavy brace and he pushed himself around the room on crutches.

Callie cleared her throat.

Tim turned, somewhat awkwardly with the crutches, to face them. His eyes danced over Callie for the briefest of seconds before they fell on Arizona. "Oh… hey," Tim greeted.

"I have your discharge papers," Callie stated simply. "You just need to sign…" she gestured to him with her pen.

"Oh, right, sure," Tim replied quickly, hobbling towards her to take the pen and clipboard.

Handing the papers back to Callie, Tim paused awkwardly to look at Arizona. Taking two steps forward, the blonde wordlessly wrapped her brother in a tight hug.

Tim faltered for a second, partially from surprise and partially from the crutches, but once he'd steadied himself, he returned the embrace.

Pulling back, Arizona placed a kiss on his cheek. "I love you," she said.

"I love you too," Tim replied earnestly.

They paused a moment longer before Arizona said, "Bye."

Grabbing his bag, Tim shook his head. "Not goodbye," he corrected. "See you later."

Arizona smiled. "See you later, Timothy."

XXXXXXXX

Three weeks after Tim's departure, things had leveled back to a state of relative normalcy. The FDA was reviewing the trial, but human testing had been put on an indefinite hold, and Callie expected funding to be pulled within the month. She had returned to her regular duties within the hospital, as had Sawyer, who was bouncing around from department to department quite frequently, as attendings had missed utilizing one of the more competent residents when her time had been monopolized on the orthopedic trial.

Outside of the hospital, Callie and Arizona had quietly begun house hunting. 5 weeks into the pregnancy, Callie's pregnancy symptoms had stayed minimal, limited to the occasional mood swing and tenderness in her breasts some days. It was nothing compared to the hormone casserole with a side of all day sickness she'd been with Sofia. But not trusting her good fortune to last forever, Callie was eager to house hunt as much as possible before she started feeling more and more pregnant. Arizona had found them a realtor, and after hashing out their guidelines (price range, distance from the hospital and Mark's apartment, schools and preschools in the area, etc.) they'd started viewing homes. They'd been out twice, and seen eight properties, but nothing that had struck them as home.

They had another appointment with the realtor today. He'd lined up four houses for them to view. It was Mark's weekend with Sofia, so they had all day. They'd been arranging their viewings around Sofia's regular schedule with Mark, for the dual reason of not wanting to bore Sofia with house hunting (it was hardly high on the list of fun ways for a three year old to spend a day) and because taking Sofia along meant that Sofia would undoubtedly tell her Daddy what they'd been up to for the day, and they were still at the point where they wanted to keep things to themselves.

Their careful planning went out the window however, when Mark knocked frantically on their door half an hour before they were due to meet the realtor.

"Hey," Mark greeted when Arizona opened the door for him, entering the apartment with Sofia on his hip, her bag slung over his shoulder. "I got a 911 page from Avery. My burn patient is crashing, they're taking him in right now, but I'm gonna be in surgery all day with this guy." He gave Sofia a kiss. "Sorry munchkin, we'll have fun tonight, when Daddy gets back from the hospital. Bye guys," he added with a wave, hurrying from the apartment.

"Huh," Arizona commented absently as she watched her daughter easily make her way through the kitchen to her toy chest in the living room. "Was not counting on that today." She blew out a puff of air. "I guess I'll call Scott and tell him we'll have to reschedule."

"What? No!" Callie replied quickly. "It could take us months and months to find a place, Arizona. Months during which I will be getting bigger and bigger. We're going."

"Oh, okay," Arizona replied. "Sofia should be fine here by herself for a few hours. She's been getting more and more independent these days. I'm sure she'd love a little alone time."

Callie rolled her eyes. "Call your sister, you dork."

"Ah, that's a much better idea," Arizona giggled.

Ten minutes later, Callie, Arizona and Sofia arrived at Sawyer's apartment.

"Thank you so much, Sawyer," Arizona sighed, helping Sofia out of her coat. "It's Mark's weekend but he got paged and we're gonna be all day. This is so much better for her."

Arizona didn't elaborate on where she and Callie would be all day, and Sawyer didn't ask. The resident had deduced that Callie was, in fact, pregnant. Callie and Sawyer had spent a few days organizing materials from the trial to be sent to the FDA, and when the resident switched Callie's regular coffee for decaf without prompting, Callie knew she knew. She and Arizona had sat her down and confirmed it the next day, because leaving it unsaid had felt weird when she clearly knew. Plus, it meant that they could continue to utilize her services as a baby sitter when they had early doctor's appointments. They hadn't told her that they were house hunting though. Sawyer was obviously knowledgeable enough to know that an OB appointment would not last all day. But she had a habit of rarely asking for information that wasn't readily provided. It was an incredibly attractive quality.

"No problem," Sawyer smiled as she, Callie and Arizona watched Sofia run to the window to watch the construction taking place on the street below that had caught her attention on the way in.

"Hello."

The voice behind them caused the trio to turn, finding Alex standing in the doorway.

"Hey, sorry, I was gonna call you," Sawyer said, her hand ghosting down his arm.

"Did you guys have a date?" Callie asked, feeling guilty.

"We were gonna go ice skating," Sawyer replied. "Kind of. I mean, I don't know how, but Alex was going to teach me. He said I can't keep watching hockey without knowing how to skate."

Arizona smiled at how cute that was.

"We can reschedule our appointment - " Callie started.

"No, no," Alex said quickly. "We can go skating tomorrow. I'll call you," he added, pulling his coat back on.

"Alex," Arizona called. "You don't have to leave because Sofia's here. I know she's not exactly conducive to a romantic date, but if you wanted to spend the day with Sawyer… I mean, you can stay if you want to."

"Oh, okay, cool. Thanks," Alex replied, slipping his coat off again.

Callie was smiling, but Sawyer was positively beaming, knowing that Arizona being okay with Alex spending the day with Sofia was a huge step towards her acceptance of the couple.

"Sofia, we need goodbye kisses," Callie called.

Sofia bounced over, hugging and kissing both of her moms before she noticed the strange man standing there.

"This is Auntie Sawyer's friend, Alex," Callie introduced.

Sofia eyed him warily.

"Hi, Sofia," Alex greeted.

Sofia turned away.

"Sofia Robbin, don't be rude. Say hello," Callie reproached.

"Hi," Sofia offered, before wiggling away and returning to her spot at the window to watch the backhoe. It wasn't that she was shy. It just took her a while to warm up to strangers.

"Alright, well have fun with that," Callie laughed. "We've gotta go, we're gonna be late."

As Callie followed Arizona from the apartment, Sawyer turned her attention to her niece. "Hey, Bear, I wanna go to the park. You wanna come?" she asked.

"Yep," Sofia declared happily, hurrying over to put on her coat and shoes.

"You wanna come to?" Sawyer asked Alex, jokingly.

"Can I come too, Sofia?" Alex asked.

Sofia gave him a look and shrugged.

Sawyer laughed. "I say you can come," she offered, grabbing a quick kiss.

As the trio made their way to the park, Sofia held Sawyer's hand, and kept a watchful eye on Alex. Alex was thinking that he'd been wrong in assuming that Arizona's approval would be the hardest to obtain in regards to his dating Sawyer. From the looks her daughter was giving him, Arizona was an out and out softie. He was scolding himself for feeling this judged by a three year old, when Sofia's attention was drawn away from Alex.

"Can we get ice cream?" she asked, pointing.

"Not before lunch!" Sawyer replied, feigning shock. She watched Alex's face fall and laughed. "Oh, you want ice cream too, Alex?"

"I like ice cream," Alex shrugged.

Sofia glanced at him appraisingly. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all.

"I thought you worked in PEDS," Sawyer joked. "Dude, no sugar until there's less than an hour before we return her to her parents."

"Ahhh," Alex laughed. "You are wise."

XXXXXXXX

Callie and Arizona met their realtor at this first property he'd selected for them. They'd barely toured it at all though, neither woman being very taken with it. It was right in the sweet spot of what they wanted, geographically. In a good school district and only a 20-minute drive from Mark's and the hospital, but aesthetically and functionally, it just wasn't right.

"I slated that one first because it was closest," Scott admitted. "This next one though, it's the one I was really excited to show you."

Following Scott in their own car, a smile split onto Arizona's face as she pulled into the driveway behind him. The grey stone was pretty, but she was immediately taken by how many big windows there were. Lots of windows had been one of the things on Arizona's list. She loved all of the natural light.

As Arizona and Callie followed their realtor inside, he wisely said nothing. He'd been showing homes for long enough to recognize the look they were both wearing. Like they might be meeting their home for the first time. He'd found it was best to let people just explore for a bit, while they were under the spell, and hit them with the details later.

Entering the front door, Callie and Arizona found themselves in a big foyer with high ceilings and a wide, winding staircase. As they wandered through the house, both women found themselves falling in love. The rooms were bright, open and airy. The kitchen was massive, with shiny new appliances, wide counters and a big island. It opened into a gorgeous dining room. As Callie's hands slid over the counters, she could picture herself cooking here. With Arizona watching and serving as taste-tester. Teaching Sofia to cook. Teaching the baby to cook. Just like her Abuelita had taught her.

There was a living room with a big fireplace and a den big enough to house two desks and serve as their joint office. There were three bathrooms, one of which was an ensuite with a Jacuzzi tub connected to what might possibly be the most gorgeous master bedroom Arizona had ever seen. It had two big windows and a walk-in closet that would easily accommodate both hers and Callie's wardrobe. The other three bedrooms were large and open. One was slightly bigger than the other two, and one had a cushioned window seat. Coming downstairs, they found a second office that the current owners seemed to have converted into a playroom for their kids, and Callie and Arizona both grinned with the idea of doing the same thing. Leaving through the back door, they found themselves on a wide back porch that opened into an expansive, fenced in back yard.

Scott found them sitting side by side on the railing of the porch. He started listing details about square footage and construction dates, but neither woman was really listening. The house was just over half an hour from the hospital, but that actually put it in what Arizona considered the better school district. So when Callie squeezed her hand, she knew.

"I think this is it, Scott," Arizona smiled, squeezing Callie's hand right back.

Scott grinned. "It's at the higher end of your price range, but that's actually a steal for a property like this. It's only been on the market for a few weeks…"

He went on about prices and mortgages and escrow, and Callie knew she should be paying attention but she was sort of in awe. They were buying a house. This was going to be their home. So she couldn't help herself, when in the middle of Scott's ramble, she pulled her wife to her and kissed her.

XXXXXXXX

As Callie and Arizona made their way down the hallway to Sawyer's apartment, they could hear giggling coming from inside. They hadn't expected to finish so early, so they'd called Sawyer and let her know that they'd be able to pick Sofia up a lot earlier than they'd anticipated. She'd told them to take their time, so they might have taken a detour back to the apartment for a little more celebrating before retrieving their daughter. But from the sounds coming from inside the apartment, they weren't the only ones having a good day.

Knocking, they heard Sawyer call, "Coming!" followed by an eruption of Sofia's giggles.

Sawyer pulled open the door and greeted them with a smile. "How'd your appointment go?" she asked.

"Really good, thanks," Arizona grinned. She glanced around the room for Sofia, expecting their daughter to come greet them. She found her sitting in Alex's lap on the couch, the two of them pulling apart gummy worms before they popped them in their mouths, a paused Super Mario game displayed on the television before them.

"Gummy worms?" Callie asked, raising her brow.

"Sorry, she and Alex won the slide races. They got to pick the snack," Sawyer shrugged.

The telltale jingle of Super Mario filled the room and Sawyer turned and sprinted back to the couch. "Hey! No fair! Starting without me," she called, vaulting the couch and grabbing her controller.

Sofia shrieked with giggles, her fingers on the joystick and buttons underneath Alex's.

When Alex and Sofia pull off the victory, Alex jumped off of the couch, Sofia in his arms, swinging her gently through the air. "We won!" she shouted.

"Cheaters," Sawyer whined good-naturedly. "Your moms are here Sof," she added.

"Alex and I won the slides and the Mario!" Sofia declared as she bounded towards her mothers, jumping into a hug.

"Is that so?" Callie asked, kissing her cheek. "You've had quite the day. Did you say thank you to Alex and Auntie Sawyer for all the fun you had today?"

Gasping, Sofia pulled away and ran back to the couple perched on the back of the couch. "Thank you!" she cried, hugging them both.

"You forgot to hug your Momma," Sawyer laughed, turning the toddler around and pointing her in Arizona's direction.

"Oh no! Momma!" Sofia called, running back to Arizona.

"How many gummy worms has she had?" Arizona asked, catching her in a hug.

Sawyer and Alex glanced at each other. "A few," Sawyer shrugged.

Arizona rolled her eyes.

"Thank you," Callie smiled, as Arizona wrestled a hyper Sofia into her coat.

"Anytime," Sawyer replied.

"Okay, Mami," Arizona said, standing, "I think we might have to go to the park to run some of this energy off."

"I already went to the park," Sofia stated.

"You can't go back?" Arizona asked, tilting her head.

"I can go back!" Sofia declared happily. "Bye Auntie Sawyer! Bye Alex!" she called, leading her Momma from the apartment by the hand.

Arizona waved her goodbyes over her shoulder, as did Callie, as she followed her wife and daughter. Hurrying to catch up with them, Callie slipped her hand into Arizona's free hand. Today might be perfect.

That got like super long.

Oh well. Hopefully you're all appreciative.

Let me hear it guys :)