Thanks again for all of the reviews. I love them and they make me want to write a ton. :) I love that you love Faith as much as I do.


"Ooo...!" Faith smiled as she watched the snow fall on that morning in late February. "Pity, Mama!"

The weeks that she had spent cooped up in the hospital had finally come to an end for now. They were on their way home and her eyes kept growing wider and wider as she took in all of the sights that she hadn't been able to see for awhile. She wasn't even a fan of the cold weather, but today, that didn't matter. She was probably just happy to be doing something normal again.

"It is pretty," Arizona smiled. "Are you happy to be out of the hospital?"

"Yep."

"Faith Evelyn, where are your hat and your mittens?" Callie laughed as she glanced back in her rear-view mirror while driving.

"Uh oh!" she answered in her tiny voice.

"Uh oh's right," Madre replied.

Before leaving, they had bundled Faith up extra well. Maybe they were a little paranoid, but the last thing they wanted was for her to catch a cold or something. However, now that they were in the car, Callie was noticing that a few select pieces of her bulky pink winter gear had gone missing.

"Did you take them off?" Arizona asked.

"Yeah," she replied, rubbing her little hands together. "Cold."

"They're cold because they need their mittens," she told her.

"Oh."

She yawned and went back to looking out the window in silence.

"Are you tired?" Callie asked.

She nodded.

"When we get home, we'll get you nice and comfy in your bed."

"Good."

Arizona looked over at Callie with the biggest smile on their face. Taking Faith home this time felt like a giant victory against the horrors of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. All of Faith's procedures had presented complications, but they were especially difficult this time.

"We're taking her home," she said.

"She still needs a heart," Callie replied, trying not to get too excited, when they could be back at the hospital putting Faith through another surgery at any time.

"Still."

"I just don't want to get comfortable," Callie said. "We know that the transplant is going to be rough. I'll be excited then. Until then, there's still so many mixed emotions. We're just...waiting to go through it all over again."

"I know," she said. "But this is our life. That's not going away until she has a new heart. But today's a great day. She gets to sleep in her bed. We get to sleep in ours. We get to have Sofia and Hershey home with us. Normal doesn't exist in this limbo we're in, but this is pretty close."

"Hi," they heard Faith say in the back

Arizona looked to realize that she was playing with a toy phone that had been left back there, most likely from the day that she was admitted.

"Who are you talkin' to, Faith?" she smiled.

"Sof," she answered.

"Are you telling her she gets to stay with you at our house tonight?"

She gasped.

"She really does!" Callie smiled.


By the time that they arrived home, Faith seemed to have some energy. They knew that she was probably better off resting, but she hadn't been able to play with many of her own toys for over a month. Right now, Faith got her way.

"Which colour is this one?" Callie asked as they sat on the floor playing with a basket full of plastic fruits and vegetables.

"Geen!" she answered.

"Green," she nodded. "Right. What kind of fruit is it? What's its name?"

"Faith," the almost twenty-seven-month-old replied.

"Not your name," she said. "What's the fruit's name? You know this one."

"Faith," she insisted.

"Okay, you want to do your name?" Arizona asked. "What's your whole name?"

"Faith," she smiled. "Mine."

"Faith Evelyn Torres," Arizona replied. "That's your whole name."

"You?" she asked.

"Mommy's name is Arizona," she answered.

"Whoa."

"Is that too big for you?" Callie laughed. "That's okay. You call her Mommy anyways, right?"

"Yeah."

"What do you want to play with next?" Arizona asked. "Still the fruits and veggies or something new?"

She took the apple from her Madre and brought it over to the shelf. This was the one and only time that she had ever begun to tidy her things on her own, but they wanted to see what she would do by herself. She dropped it in the wrong bucket, but at least she knew to put it away.

"Good job," she said.

"Buh bye, App."

"Bye, bye, Apple?" Callie asked. "See? You know that one. You were holding out on me!"

"When you take a nap, Mommy's going to go to the store and get some real fruits and veggies," Arizona told Faith. "And a whole bunch of other things. We don't have food in our house right now!"

"No?" she asked.

"Nope!" she replied. "Is there anything you want me to buy? I'm going to get you more applesauce, but what else?"

Even though they had gotten Faith to eat a variety of foods, she was still on an applesauce kick. They were trying to get her interested in more foods.

"What about cheese and crackers?" Callie asked. "You like that."

"Yep," she agreed.

"And I'll buy you some noodles and make you soup, too," Mommy said.

"Yuck."

"Oh, you'll like it!" Callie replied. "You're so stubborn!"

"Say 'I get that from my Madre!'" Arizona said.

"For a Maday."

"I think Mama's pretty stubborn, too," Callie told Faith. "What do you think?"

"No."

"That's right," Arizona nodded.


They weren't sure exactly where Faith's sudden burst of energy came from, but it lasted quite a while. By the time she was down for her nap and Arizona could finish up the grocery shopping, it was just about time for Sofia's school to let out. She texted Mark and Lexie to let them know that she would pick her up.

"Mommy!" the little Latina's face lit up when she saw her. "What are you doin' here?"

"Faith's home," Arizona announced, hugging her "big girl."

They had known that this would happen ahead of time, but they didn't want to tell Sofia. If something would have happened to prevent Faith's discharge, their almost seven-year-old would have been devastated. It was better to keep these things secret.

"She is?" she asked. "For real, Mommy?"

"For real, Sofia," she smiled. "She's having a nap with Madre right now."

"Did she get her new heart?"

"Not yet," she answered. "But Dr. Brady said she can go home."

"Let's go see her," she said.

"C'mon."

"Mommy...?" she asked as they walked down the hall.

"What?"

"Does Daddy know Faith's home?"

"He does," she nodded.

"Is Hershey still at his house?"

"Yeah."

"Could we go get her?" she wondered. "Faith would like that."

"Our car is full of groceries and I left our key to Daddy's house at home," she said. "I'm sure Daddy'll bring her home later."


As it turned out, Hershey was already home when Arizona and Sofia got back to the house. Mark had been on his way to pick up Sofia, but since Arizona was going to, he turned around and went to bring the dog home instead. Now, Faith's "Wub" was lying on the floor beside her bed as she rested.

"Are you taking care of Faith?" Arizona asked the chocolate lab, who's tail began wagging when she saw Arizona and Sofia.

Sofia stepped – or more like jumped – over the dog to get into her sister's room. Mommy had warned her that the two-year-old had probably used up most of her energy for the day, but all Sofia wanted to do was be close to her and welcome her home.

"You came home, Faith!" she told her. "Are you excited?"

"Nigh' nights," she said.

"You're just pretty sleepy now?" Arizona asked. "That's okay. I'm going to make Sof a snack. Do you want something?"

"No."

"Later?" Callie asked. "Maybe at dinner time?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds good," Arizona smiled.

"I wrote a story for Faith," Sofia said. "We had to write a story to read it to somebody in our family. Really, it's for Max because it has his name in it, but Faith doesn't know Max's name. I'll tell her that says Faith."

Callie laughed. "Okay."

"Do you want me to go get my story, Faith?"

"No," Faith replied.

Faith was happy to be home and to see her dog and her sister, but she was mostly just worn out at this point in the day. She didn't understand why her big sister was so full of energy. To her, it was naptime, not time to hear all about Sofia's day.

"Later, okay?" Arizona asked, giving Sofia a kiss. "I know you're really excited, but Faith needs some quiet time."

"Fine."

"We can go work on some of your other homework after your snack," Callie suggested.

"Does Faith got to go to sleep all the time?" she asked as she gave her sister a kiss.

"She's had a rough few weeks," Arizona said. "She's still working on getting better. It's like when you're sick. It sometimes takes time to get better, doesn't it?"

"Yeah."

"You can sit with Faith later," Callie promised. "But she doesn't want to talk much or anything right now, okay?"

"Yeah."


"I bet that felt good, huh?" Callie asked as she dressed Faith in fresh pyjamas that night.

They still couldn't give her a full bath because of her incision, but she had just given her the best sponge bath that she had gotten in weeks. She was pretty tired still, but she had played with a few tub toys in the process, which seemed to make her happy.

"Yeah, Maday," she nodded. "Maday?"

"Yes?" she asked.

"Nigh' night?"

"Do you want to sleep in our bed or your big girl bed tonight?" she asked, giving her a kiss. "Where do you want to go night night?"

They had been discussing this all day. As much as they wanted Faith to get to sleep in her own room for the first time in a while, and as much as they wanted their bed to themselves, they weren't sure how it would go. Even though Faith was home, she would probably have a rough night again. Did they really want to keep getting up with her? After much debate, they decided to leave it up to her. They may have been creating an eventual bedtime nightmare, but this was just one of the many things that hypoplastic left heart syndrome changed for their family.

"Mama."

"With me and Mama?" she asked.

"Is that what she chose?" Arizona wondered as she came into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"We're never having S-E-X again, are we?" Callie asked.

Arizona laughed. "She won't choose our bed forever. I promise you. Once she's feeling better, we put our foot down."

"Right. I'll believe that when I see it."

"Seriously!" Arizona insisted. "H.L.H.S. or not, I fully intend to raise two self-sufficient kids."

"Yep," Callie agreed as Faith giggled. "Hear that? You're still gonna have to have big girl rules some day!"

"And plus, we're exhausted tonight," Arizona said. "It's been a long time since we've been home. There wasn't going to be any S-E-X tonight anyways."

"Okay, true," she said, yawning even though it was barely eight o'clock.

"Where is everyone?!" Sofia called out as she came up the stairs after watching the final moments of the Disney movie that was just on.

"In the bathroom!" Arizona called out.

"Faith had a bath?" she asked.

"Kind of," Callie nodded. "Now she's going to bed."

"Mama bed," Faith said, as if to rub it in.

"She gets to sleepover in your room?!" Sofia asked.

Callie looked over at Arizona as if to forbid her to invite their first grader to this slumber party of sorts. She could handle cuddling with Faith for the night. After all, she had been sleeping on a chair or a cot for over a month now. However, she didn't want her not-so-little-anymore girl in the bed too.

"Calliope..."

"What happened to raising self-sufficient kids?" she wondered.

"Starts tomorrow," she decided. "It's our first night back home. It should be special."

"What's special about her foot kicking me in the face?"

"She can sleep on my side."

"Yay!" Sofia cheered. "We get to cuddle, Faith!"

"You have to let your sister sleep," Callie warned as they headed to the bedroom. "And you have school in the morning. So if you keep waking her up, you can't stay –"

As they entered the room, they realized that Hershey had already found herself a nice spot right in the center of the bed.

"Oh, no," Callie said. "Human babies are one thing. I can't handle you in the bed, too."

"Hershey's kinda like a big pillow," Sofia said.

"Hersh, get down," Arizona ordered, actually siding with her wife on this.

The dog hopped down. Once they were settled in, even Callie couldn't deny that having all of her girls close to her was nice.

"Goodnight, girls," Arizona smiled.

"We forgot our prayers!" Sofia realized.

"We did," Callie agreed, realizing just how out of the routine they had been lately.

"Make them quick," Arizona said. "Everybody's tired."

"Not me," Sofia corrected.

"Everybody else is," she told her. "God'll understand."

"Jesus, thank you that Faith got to come home today and that Hershey likes it better back at Madre and Mommy's, too. And help the heart people get Faith a new heart soon," Sofia said.

"Amen," Callie smiled.

"Yep," Faith said.

"Goodnight, girls," Mommy said again.

"But tomorrow I got more to say," Sofia added.