Callie was practically running – but not quite because she was in a pair of heels that she didn't exactly trust herself to run in down the New York sidewalk – towards an apartment building that Addison had moved into about a year ago. She didn't know what it was about events and her running late to them, but it seemed to happen more often than not.

Thankfully the doorman knew her and was used to her running in by now, so the door was already pulled open for her to run past by the time she got to him.

In response, she gave him a smile – because, honestly, he was great to talk to when she wasn't in a rush – and shouted, "Thanks!" over her shoulder.

It was a surprise party for Mark's birthday, and even though this wasn't one of the times that Addison had expressly made her swear that she wouldn't be late – which she and Arizona both had taken to doing that lately, even though she maintained that she wasn't late that much – she still took to heart that this was one of the times that she really needed to be on time.

Because what was the point of showing up to a surprise party possibly after the guest of honor? Or worse, what if they were showing up at the same time?

She tossed a look over her shoulder, just to be sure that he wasn't behind her, and when the coast was clear she finally took a deep breath and hit the button on the elevator to take her up to the penthouse. God, even the penthouse elevator in this place still didn't cease to amaze her with its elegance.

The elevator at her apartment was widely untrusted and after having gotten stuck in it her first week of moving in with Cristina a few years ago, she'd learned to just take the stairs. At least they only lived on the third floor.

Heart still beating fast in her haste to arrive on time, she opened her clutch and took out her phone, checking for any messages from her girlfriend.

Arizona had been extremely busy lately, given that she was finishing her first year at Columbia, and preparing for a prestigious internship that she would be starting for the summer a week after her finals were over. But Callie would take Arizona being busy but only living a twenty minute subway ride away any day compared to in another state, of course.

Because now, they didn't have to rely on phone calls or Skype or texting or… anything except for face-to-face contact, really. It felt amazing to be able to actually see her girlfriend several times a week.

Like, being able to show up to the apartment Arizona shared with three other girls who also attended Columbia Law with a pint of ice cream and just hang out with her between her Saturday shows. Or having Arizona wait for her outside of the theatre for when her show let out on the nights when she wasn't super busy with homework and they could go back to her apartment together.

Honestly, Arizona's move to the city and kicking ass in school and Altered Affection moving to the official Broadway stage… this had been the single best year of her life.

Unfortunately with Arizona's busy schedule, when Callie had told her about the surprise party tonight at Addison's ridiculously swanky Upper East Side apartment, which was always an awe-inspiring place to hang out, she had to get in some extra hours for her pre-internship training.

Tonight was going to be full of their cast and crew members, she knew, and Arizona had gotten fairly well accustomed to them in the last year. But this internship was important, and Callie would have a good time without her girlfriend, too. Especially because she planned on going to see her tomorrow for something big that she had planned.

Even Cristina had been busy tonight, which was definitely strange because Cristina loved the pricey free alcohol that Addison tended to always have on hand here. And there would be even more tonight, considering it was a party.

Oh, well.

She was slipping her phone back into her clutch – no new messages from Arizona, which wasn't that surprising because she liked to keep her phone off and her focus on her work when she was doing something important – when the elevators dinged open and she opened her mouth to apologize for being late before the doors were even completely open.

But before she had the chance, all she heard was,

"Surprise!"

The word was being shouted at her from all angles, and she tripped backwards in her shoes, knocking into the back of the elevator and gripping the railing like her life depended on it while her heart thundered in her chest and a strangled scream worked its way out of her throat, "Jesus Christ!"

Addison's rather exuberant face was the first thing swimming in her vision, as the redhead walked into the elevator. Even while grinning, she seemed kind of smug, "You didn't suspect a thing."

God, she could have sworn she was going to have a heart attack, and Callie kept her hand held over her heart, trying to get back its natural rhythm while she searched for words, "I – you – Mark's birthday? I'm not Mark."

It was the only thing that was actually working its way out of her throat, and she thought it was good enough, as she was someone who was planning to take part in yelling the surprise part of the surprise party, not the person being surprised.

The redhead's eyes rolled, "No shit."

And then Sloan popped up over Addison's shoulder, and they both took her by the arms and led her out into the crowd of people who were all resuming their drinking and chattering that they'd clearly been doing before her elevator ride, "And honestly Torres, I'm wounded. My birthday isn't even for another month."

"Then what –" she was cut off before she could even voice her bafflement.

And it was by Cristina of all people – who was indeed indulging in Addison's choice booze, who wandered up to them only a few feet off of the elevator, "Honestly Cal, you just got nominated for a Tony and all you can ask is why there's a party being thrown on your behalf?"

At just the mention of her Tony nomination, her heart beat a little bit faster again and her confused expression melted off, being replaced with a huge smile. God, it had only been announced just less than two weeks ago, but she still couldn't believe it.

It was safe to say she was absolutely stunned, and she turned her attention back to Addison, "You – you planned all of this in like ten days?"

She was already reaching to pull her into a hug, holding tight with her arms around the redhead's shoulders, feeling her friend hug back for a few seconds, before pulling back, lifting an eyebrow, "I mean, I've been telling you since we officially moved to Broadway that your ass was going to at least get a nomination. But I have to admit, I mostly just provided the location for the party…" she trailed off, and her eyes looked over Callie's shoulder.

Spinning on her heel to follow her gaze, she landed on Arizona, whose hands were twisting a little bit in front of her, wearing a blue summer dress that was absolutely adorable, while her hair – recently cut to her shoulders – waved down loosely. And even though they'd been together for over a year, she still felt that flip-flopping feeling low in her stomach, as an entirely different smile took over her face.

"You planned all of this in ten days?" and she could hardly believe it, because Arizona had been so busy – dark eyes narrowed in speculation, "Wait a second. All of those extra training programs for your internship…?"

The smile that took over her girlfriend's face was utterly adorable, and the dimples absolutely popped as she shook her head, "No extra training programs. Just… a lot of planning."

Callie could barely take it all in, and she felt herself walking forward towards her girlfriend before she even realized she was doing it, and within seconds, she found her arms full of the soft, sweet smelling woman who had made her life such a better place.

Tan arms wrapped around her shoulders seamlessly, in an embrace that had been done so much it seemed like second nature, and Arizona's arms no longer hesitated at all before coming to wrap themselves around her waist. They held her tight and the blonde's voice was low in her ear, "You're amazing, and I know I've been busy lately, but… you were nominated for a Tony. And you're going to win it."

Her voice held sincerity and a promise – granted, it was a promise Arizona couldn't keep, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was that her girlfriend did all of this planning and arranged everything and her throat felt a little more constricted as she tightened her arms briefly before pulling back just enough that she could see the way those baby blues sparkled up at her.

"You're so… thank you," she breathed out, trailing the words with her thumb over Arizona's bottom lip, before leaning down and pressing her mouth against the blonde's.

It was just a touch, just enough of a brush against those soft lips to try to tell Arizona that she appreciated all of this and that she couldn't believe it, and that she appreciated her, before she pulled back, mindful of the fact that they were in a room full of people, who had showed up for her.

As she pulled back, she licked her lips, and didn't miss the fact that Arizona did the same thing. It made her breath hitch, and she made herself look away because… almost everyone she knew from New York it seemed was here, in this room, watching them.

But she couldn't not watch as those soft pink lips turned up into a smile, "You should go do the meet and greet with everyone. They all came to see you," Arizona murmured to her, letting her arms drop slowly.

And Callie almost felt herself frown because she wanted to keep Arizona's arms around her and have her stay by her side, even though that wasn't the most logical way to circulate a room. So she tipped her head to the side a bit, "You're right." But before she could take a step away, she hesitated, biting her bottom lip, "You're, um, going to be here after though, right?"

Which seemed stupid after it came out of her mouth, and it made her roll her eyes at herself, but really she just wanted to make sure she would be able to have some alone time with her absolutely amazing girlfriend after she'd gone to talk to the people who had come to this party.

Arizona just lifted an eyebrow, laughter on her face, but instead of teasing, she just nodded, "There's nowhere else I'd rather be," she confirmed.

Which, god, that was a great feeling.

It took her nearly two hours to circulate between the members of the cast and crew and some of the people that had surprised her – like April and a few of Arizona's other sorority sisters who she'd gotten to know a bit more in the last year during the times they would come to visit their former president in the city.

And it was amazing and overwhelming, which was how she found herself out on the balcony, her hands gripping the metal rail as she looked out over the bright lights of the city. She kind of felt like she could see forever from here, and it was her favorite place at Addison's apartment. As the wind blew, she shivered and kind of regretted the fact that she'd been in such a rush that she didn't grab a jacket.

Not that she even had to rush, really, because this whole party had been for her. The idea of it still made her head swim a little bit, and she braced her elbows on the railing and pressed her head into her hands.

She was nominated for a damn Tony award – and the show itself was nominated for two others. It was kind of really, ridiculously unbelievable, honestly. The fact that this was her life right now and that she was here. That she had made it.

It was… unreal the way things had fallen into place. With the musical, with Arizona, with… everything. And last week, she'd even gotten a letter in the mail from Aria. Who had just turned seventeen, and she'd gone on a school trip to Manhattan, which had included seeing a Broadway show.

Her Broadway show.

Callie hadn't felt the same dregs of exhaustion that she'd felt before getting her role. Of course, she was still kind of run down during the busy times, but… it was nothing like pulling double shifts and worrying about making half of the rent in the tiny apartment with Cristina.

She even had savings now. Like, a substantial amount of savings. A year and a half ago, she spent her last three dollars on a book that she didn't even want to buy, and tonight she was having a surprise party thrown for her in a penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side. Her head shook in disbelief because how was this even real life?

She could hear the glass door slide open and closed quickly behind her, and she didn't turn because she was fairly certain it was Addison. But she only had to look at the creamy white hand that delicately curled around the railing next to hers to see that it was Arizona.

A smile worked its way up onto her face, as she turned slightly to look at her girlfriend and the way the wind blew her hair gently, "What are you doing out here? I thought you were catching up with April?"

Arizona was already facing her, and blue eyes traced over her face, "I was, but then I saw you out here, and I wanted to see if you were okay."

She nodded haltingly, and when Arizona's hand slid over to hers, her fingertips lightly sliding over the back of Callie's hand, hers turned over automatically and sought out the blonde's fingers to intertwine with her own. It made her heart beat fast, just feeling their connection like this, and it made her heart leap in her chest thinking about their relationship.

And she felt like this was the right time, even though she'd been planning on waiting until tomorrow, so she nodded as if giving herself courage, "Arizona?" and her voice sounded lower than usual to her own ears.

Which was probably nerves, but not enough to stop her, because it had been something she'd been thinking about for a while now. As blue eyes turned to look at her, she took a deep breath to continue on before Arizona could say anything to her.

"I mean… I know that we're busy," she started, before cringing at herself because that was so not the way to go about this conversation, and she shook her head to cut off any of Arizona's response, "We're both really busy, and we have our own schedules and lives, but I think we've done a really good job of blending them in the time we've been together," she ducked her head a bit and picked Arizona's hand up to play with her fingers, "I mean, you have school during the mornings and some of the afternoon, and at night I have my show. But we make it work, usually. Like, we have dinner together most nights. We make it work," she repeated, bringing her gaze up from Arizona's hands to her eyes, as her hand tightened a bit around the blondes, "I think we could make it even better, though," she said quietly, steadily.

But before she could finish her thought, blue eyes widened and the fear in them was kind of crystal clear. Arizona quickly pushed herself off of the railing and her hand disentangled from Callie's but she didn't really move away so much as kind of rock back and forth from foot to foot.

Her stomach kind of plummeted, but she couldn't even backtrack as Arizona started to speak. Ramble, really, "I – god, I definitely didn't think this was going to happen so quickly. But I'm – Callie, I love you. I'm kind of really, really in love with you. But proposing? I can't," her eyebrows furrowed briefly, "I can't say that I haven't thought about it, obviously. Getting married and everything, with you. But we can't have that happen until at least another two years. And I'm sorry. I figured we could wait that long because, I mean, we are both still really young. I need to graduate law school before I can even contemplate thinking about our wedding."

Wide blue eyes stared up at her while Arizona's chest seemed to move quickly, and her nerves were palpable to Callie, whose stomach hadn't dropped anymore, so much as – well, the butterflies were back.

She grinned and reached out to put her hands on Arizona's shoulders, thumbs stroking the soft skin there gently, and she hoped it was enough to calm Arizona down enough to look her in the eye.

"Arizona. I wasn't proposing," she informed the blonde, watching as her eyebrows drew down in confusion, before she continued, running her hands down Arizona's arms, gently, until she could take her hands in her own again, "I was… well, I was kind of asking you if you wanted to move in with me."

Callie tried to read her expression, but it was practically blank. And then those nerves were back, so she cleared her throat, "I – it's okay if that's not what you want right now. I completely understand, I mean, it hasn't even been two years for us yet. But Cristina is moving out with Meredith and she isn't renewing our lease. I could renew it, but, well, I've been looking at other apartments in better locations. I make enough now that I could afford to live somewhere by myself. And there's a nice place I found that I wanted to show to you because I thought –" god, she was rambling. She needed to cut this off asap and get back to her point, "Anyway. If you wanted to – to move in with me, we could. But if you're happy with the way things are and you want to stay with your roommates, I understand."

Those big blue eyes stared up at her, and she blinked a few times, before she shook her head, blonde hair shaking over her shoulders, "You're asking me if I want to move out of my apartment that I live in with three other girls, to a nice apartment with you, my girlfriend?"

She spoke slowly as if testing everything out, and she bit her lip before nodding, "Yeah."

The smile that broke across Arizona's face then was almost heart-stoppingly beautiful, "Yes, Calliope. Of course I want to move in with you; we basically spend most of our nights together already. And this way, I won't have to feel bad when you come over but I need to study because, well, I'll be studying where we live," she added on, in her quiet, logical tone that she took on when she was talking somewhat more to herself.

But Callie found that her heart beat wildly in her chest at the admission, and before she could even think to stop herself, she used her hold on Arizona's hands to pull her closer to herself. She felt the blonde's body press against hers, making her breath shudder out a bit, because that dress was thin and she could feel all of Arizona's body heat and curves pressed there.

It did nothing to lessen her bright smile, even as she dipped her head to perfectly meet Arizona's mouth with hers. The blonde's lips were already parting for her, and she sucked on Arizona's bottom lip, taking it between her own and nibbling on it for a moment before releasing and moving back to meet their lips again.

And she felt Arizona's tongue lightly trace over the roof of her mouth, which was… fuck, that was the best feeling ever, and her hands tightened on her girlfriend's as she whimpered and pulled back.

But not too far, just enough to rest her forehead on Arizona's.

Then she felt herself chuckling, and Arizona asked a little breathlessly, "What?"

Disentangling their fingers, she brought her hand up to gently swipe back wavy blonde hair and tuck it behind her ear, running her fingers over it reverently, "I just… you thought I was proposing and you didn't even run away."

Because she loved Arizona and she wanted to move in with her, but she didn't think that they were ready for marriage yet. Arizona was still in law school, and she was still getting her feet wet on Broadway.

Even from where they were standing, she could tell that the blonde was blushing, her voice was low as she mumbled, "Well. It wasn't that scary."

She didn't think she would ever be able to explain to Arizona why her saying that her proposing wasn't really all that scary. Licking her lips, silence was around them for a few moments before she asked, "So… you think about it? About, you know, one day we'll get married?"

Arizona took in a deep breath and brought her hand up to Callie's cheek, thumb wiping there gently, "Of course," she admitted, softly. "I mean, that's where this is heading, right?" she leaned back for a moment, and looked like she genuinely wanted the confirmation.

Which made Callie's stomach tingle with warmth as she nodded, "Yeah, that's where I want us to go."

A grin pulled at the corners of her mouth, "Good. Now… tell me more about this apartment."

Now Callie couldn't help but let a full-out, radiant smile pull at her lips, "It's in a great neighborhood. And the price is reasonable. Two bedrooms, a study, an actual living room that is different from the kitchen," she was unreasonably excited about that, but whatever, because she'd been living in a one room apartment with Cristina for over two years.

She could tell by the look on her face that Arizona was interested, so she continued, "It's less than ten minutes away from the theatre, without even needing the subway, so amazing. And it's about as far from your school as you are now, so it's not really a difference there."

If it was possible, Arizona's face seemed to grow even more excited as she laughed a bit, "Okay, but where is it?"

Biting her lip, she couldn't even let that deter from her grin, "It's in the building above the bookstore," she admitted, and she really loved it. She loved the location and she loved the way Arizona's eyes widened, and she shook her head.

"You can't be serious," she deadpanned, blue eyes searching dark ones for the truth, but there were no lies to be told.

She just nodded, and whispered, "It's fate."

Blue eyes rolled just a little, and it was in a good natured way, "You'll never give up on that, will you?"

And Callie shook her head, because obviously she never would, "How can you not think it is?" Before Arizona could say anything back, she felt the words tumbling from her mouth, "Arizona, a year and a half ago… I couldn't have imagined any of this. You. Friends like Addison. Even stepping foot in a building like this. Being – jesus – being nominated for a Tony Award. And it all changed that day when I walked into that bookstore. I found your book, and I found you and I got a callback that just, it changed my entire life. It all started that one day in that bookstore and now there's an apartment there? That's perfect for us? Maybe you think that's not fate, and I love you, but you're wrong. It is. It has to be," she nodded with certainty.

Even though Arizona smiled a little bit, she just shook her head to let Callie know she was unconvinced.

Either way, less than a month later, they had moved into that apartment together, right above the bookstore. With the old man complaining about the moving vans taking away his business.

And no, she hadn't been proposing that night. But the night that she did propose, she did it outside of their fated bookstore, on the way into their apartment, both of them still on the high of attending Arizona's grad school party and the fact that she'd already gotten a job at one of the best law firms in the city, focusing on family law.

The apartment above the bookstore that they lived in with four of Callie's Tony awards. Where a phone call for Arizona to become a partner in her law firm had been answered.

Where they lived with their baby daughter, eight years later. And it wasn't until they stood over her crib and watched her sleep, that Arizona reached down for Callie's hand and took it in her own, squeezing lightly as she rested her blonde head on Callie's shoulder, turning to press a light kiss there, that she finally admitted, "It was. It was fate."


Please let me know what you think! That was it, the final chapter in these girl's lives. Thank you all so much for reading this story, and it's been amazing to write.

Also, for the few people who reviewed and didn't feel entirely satisfied that the last chapter didn't focus solely on Callie/Arizona interaction and relationship - this story is of course about their relationship. But it was also about Callie (and then Arizona)'s growth as people, individually, outside of their relationship. Their friendships and ups and downs. They just so happened to have those aspects of their lives fall into place at the same time as meeting each other. Let's call it fate.