A/N: Hey all! So I'm giving you this chapter now, even though I haven't started writing my next one, not feeling to good, think I've got a stomach bug. I've borrowed a character from my favorite series of books. Some of you will hopefully recognize her as well!

Chapter 36

"Gah, this day sucks!" Arizona growled as she plopped down beside Callie on the floor. She was glad they only had one more class after lunch. She wasn't sure how much more of this day she could take. All they had left was psychology and having Callie with her would definitely help.

"I know what you mean," Callie agreed. It was hard getting back into the routine of school, knowing it had continued on in their absence. Keeping up with the assignments didn't prepare them for all they had truly missed.

"Freaking Peterson threw a test at us in calculus today," Arizona continued, not done complaining. "Who gives tests on Wednesdays? Nobody, that's who! Especially when that Wednesday is really like a Monday because it's the first day of the week. Stupid test," Arizona pouted, popping a baby carrot into her mouth.

"I'm sure you did fine," Callie tried to reassure, knowing her girlfriend was more worried about having failed said test, than what day it was on. Even though at times Arizona seemed to hate school, she was dedicated and constantly worried about failing. "Unlike me, you're amazing with numbers." Callie excelled more in sciences, so they complemented each other nicely in that aspect.

"Hey girls, what's up?" Mark asked, taking a bite out of his apple as he sat down in front of them.

"Arizona is freaking out about the calculus test," Callie told him with a smile, knowing their friend was in that class with Arizona. "Doesn't help we were gone for a week."

"Eh, just gave the rest of us a fighting chance," Mark teased, earning a glare from the blonde. "What? You know you're the smartest kid in that class right? Even if you flunked this test, you'd still beat everyone by a mile when final grades come in."

"Which, I'm sure you didn't fail it," Callie quickly added, not wanting Arizona to start freaking out again.

"Yeah, probably still ran circles around me, and I even studied yesterday," Mark said, getting a raised eyebrow from both girls. "Well I did have the book open in front of me," he defended himself.

"When?" Callie asked, knowing there was more to it than that.

"While I was watching TV," he finally admitted. "Alright, I didn't study. I'm no good at it anyway." He was far too easily distracted by life to sit down and focus.

"Maybe you should come study with us sometime," Callie suggested. "I don't have Peterson, but him and Lockheart tend to keep on the same track so Arizona and I study together. She's really good at explaining things I don't understand."

"Maybe, I'll think about it," he told them, thinking it sounded like a good idea.

"I think your phone is vibrating," Arizona told Callie a few minutes later, positive she was hearing movement in Callie's backpack.

"Oh, right," Callie muttered, opening the bag and digging through it until she could find the desired object. "It's my dad."

"Maybe he has news," Arizona exclaimed, putting her head next to Callie's so she could hear too. Both girls ignored the questioning look on Mark's face as Callie connected the call.

"Hey dad," Callie greeted.

"Hi, mija. I'm not catching you in class am I?" Carlos asked.

"No, we're on lunch right now," she explained.

"Oh good. Then I take it Arizona is with you?"

"Hi, Carlos," greeted him before Callie could answer the question.

"Hello, Arizona," he greeted back. "I'm so glad I caught you both. I was wondering if you two could come down to my office after school."

Callie threw a questioning look at Arizona, silently asking if that was alright. Arizona nodded her head. "Sure that should be fine. Is this about the adoption?" She couldn't think of any other reason her dad would want them to come down.

"Yes, it is. But I'll explain when you get here," he told them. "Oh and bring my granddaughter, that's an order," he said with laughter, letting them know he was teasing.

"We will," Arizona promised. They would have to stop at home to get the car anyway. No reason they couldn't grab Amelia before they headed out.

"Good. Then I'll see you both in a couple hours." The click of the phone let them know he'd hung up before they got a chance to respond.

"Yay. Finally we're getting somewhere," Arizona squealed, earning a laugh from Callie at her excitement.

"Yes, we are," Callie told her. Taking her girlfriend's face in her hands, she gave her a quick peck on the lips, hoping to calm her down some. They were still at school after all.

"Want to tell me what's going on?" Mark asked after watching them for several minutes and still not having any clue.

"That was my dad, asking if we could meet him at his office later," Callie explained. "He said he'd explain more when we get there, but we're hopefully meeting with his lawyers."

"I want to adopt Amelia," Arizona told him when she realized Callie was just confusing him more. "Her dad is helping me do that."

"Oh wow, that's great," Mark said, trying to sound like he meant it. He did mean it. It was obvious his two friends belonged together, but he was only now realizing how much more mature they were than the rest of their class. He couldn't imagine being a parent right now and he couldn't wrap his head around someone making a conscious choice to be one.

"Arizona is already Amelia's mother," Callie continued, wanting him to understand. "No piece of paper will change that. We just want to make sure we don't have to relive the hospital incident ever again." Mark's head shot up to look at both of them, realizing there was a story behind Callie's last sentence. "Let's just say it was unpleasant and leave it at that," she finished, neither of them really wanted to rehash that day right now.

"I'm going to text mom, let her know to have Amelia ready to go when we get home," Arizona told Callie. The rest of their lunch period was spent laughing and joking around like they normally did, their earlier conversation forgotten for now.

~CA~

"Do you think he has good news, or bad?" Arizona worried as Callie drove them towards their destination. Arizona took a glance into the backseat, smiling as Amelia happily entertained herself.

"I don't know. Good I hope," Callie answered. "I can't imagine he'd drag us all the way down there for no reason." Not that it was a long drive, but at this time of day it was likely going to take them no less than half an hour.

"What does he do anyway?" Arizona asked, wanting to get her mind off the impending meeting, at least for a moment.

"I'm not really sure actually," Callie admitted. Her parents had never talked to her about their jobs, only ever telling her they had to work when she tried to spend time with them. It seemed silly to ask now. "Most of what I know, is what the public knows," she explained, knowing the Torres name came up in many news broadcasts around the world. "He has his hands in over a dozen different business, that's all I'm really sure of."

"What kind of businesses?" Arizona questioned, wanting to know more now. She'd probably heard the name mentioned on television, but before meeting Callie, she hadn't cared enough to really pay attention.

"Restaurants, hotels, car dealerships," Callie listed, "who knows really. Well this is it," Callie said, pointing at the large office building in front of them. Climbing out of the vehicle, she went about unbuckling Amelia from her seat, while Arizona grabbed the diaper bag. At almost a year old now, she was too big to carry around in the car seat. It made Callie sad that her little girl was getting so big.

"Ah Miss Torres, your father said we should expect you," the security guard at the front desk told them. "He said to go right on up to his office."

"Thank you, Tony," Callie said. Arizona heard the change in her girlfriend's voice, one she'd only heard a few times before. It amazed her how Callie could easily switch into the attitude of the wealthy and just as easily turn it off again with a blink of an eye. "Elevators are over there," Callie pointed out to Arizona.

Arizona wasn't surprised when Callie pushed the button for the top floor. While this building wasn't a large skyscraper, it did surprise her how many floors it had. She couldn't remember being in a building that had more than five or six floors. Fifteen stories later the elevator stopped and let them off. "Wow," Arizona breathed, looking around the large, beautifully decorated room they now stood in. The lobby on the bottom floor and been so plain, she hadn't known what to expect.

"Yeah, Dad had the best designers and decorators on the west coast work on this building when he finally decided to make it his headquarters. It also has every amenity you could imagine. He even has his own apartment on the floor above us, but you can only get to it from the stairs in his office."

"Why does he need an apartment?" Arizona asked curiously.

"Something about overseas conference calls and not wanting to be driving in the middle of the night. I don't honestly know," Callie admitted. For a while after he'd opened this building, he had basically lived in that apartment. Only coming home on Sundays. With all the current tension between him and her mother, Callie vaguely wondered if he was living here again.

"Ah, girls. You made it. I was just going to call downstairs to see if Tony had seen you yet," Carlos said, gesturing to the phone in his hand. He walked over to give all three girls a kiss on the cheek, ran a hand through Amelia's baby soft hair. "There's someone you need to meet, come, come," he encouraged. Arizona was glad Callie had filled her in on the apartment when he led them through his office and up the stairs. "I figured it would be less formal up here," he explained when they reached the top of the steps.

Looking around, Callie knew her earlier thought was correct. Her father had been spending more time here than at home. She felt guilty, knowing so much of the tension between her parents was because of her. But finally having her dad involved in her life was something she wouldn't give back.

"Girls, this is Mrs. Kaklis," Carlos introduced the blonde woman sitting on the couch. She looked up from the paper she was reading, giving them a smile. "This is my daughter, Callie and her girlfriend, Arizona. And this cutie here is Amelia," he said, taking his granddaughter from Callie.

Standing up, the woman offered her hand to both girls in greeting. "Please, call me Lily. We'll likely be working very closely for the next little while." She looked to be in her early to mid thirties, but if Callie had to guess, she looked good for her age and was likely a bit older based on the way she carried herself.

"And why is that exactly?" Callie asked. This woman didn't seem like the type of person her father usually employed, so she wasn't exactly sure what was going on.

"All my sources told me that Mrs. Kaklis here is the best there is to help you two through this adoption," Carlos explained. "Amelia and I will go walk around the building, leave the three of you to talk," he offered, taking the diaper bag from Arizona.

"He's so going to show her off, isn't he?" Arizona asked Callie once the two had disappeared back the stairs.

"Probably," Callie agreed. Taking Arizona's hand, she led her over to the couch and took a seat across from Lily, pulling Arizona down beside her. Both girls looked over at the lawyer curiously, not really knowing what they were supposed to be doing.

"Why don't I start by telling you a little bit about myself?" Lily asked, trying to put them both at ease. Carlos had explained the circumstances to her, so she knew how overwhelmed they must have felt. "I grew up in California and went into family law right out of law school. I enjoyed it immensely, but then my wife and I decided to extend our family." Lily caught the glance between the girls and knew she'd made the right choice in opening up to them.

"I stopped practicing for a while to be a stay-at-home mom. Then a few years ago my wife bought a dealership up here in Seattle and we fell in love with the area. Now our family splits our time between here and our home in L.A., although I do kind of miss the earthquakes," she laughed to herself, knowing the two teenagers wouldn't get the inside joke between her and her wife. Instead they just looked at her like she was crazy.

"My kids are all in school now, so I decided to come back to work part-time, taking on only a few cases at a time. Now my focus is on LGBT families. When your father called me," Lily looked at Callie as she said this, "I didn't hesitate to say I would help you out. Mr. Torres worked with my wife when she decided to expand up this way and I was more than happy to," Lily finished.

Arizona smiled, glad to have someone like Lily fighting for them. She was a pretty good judge of character and her instincts were telling her this woman was someone they wanted on their side. "So where do we start?" Arizona asked, eager to get into it.

"I'm going to be honest with you. Your case is unique because of the circumstances. I do promise to do everything I can to make this happen." Lily paused, letting that sink in. "It does help that gay marriage is now legal in this state, but that will only go so far since you two aren't married. The law states you have to be at least 18 to be eligible to be an adoptive parent, so that isn't stopping us. What is, however, is the fact that you, Arizona, are a high school student with no job."

"Do I need to get a job?" Arizona asked, more than willing to do whatever it took to make Amelia legally hers. She would hate being away from her family any more than necessary but she'd do it if she had to.

"For now, no. We'll revisit that if we need to. I want to use this case to really prove that love is what makes a family. Which is how it always should be anyway. I've been where you are, when we tried to adopt my oldest son," she confessed. "My wife and I had money and the court knew that, but love was what proved we belonged together as a family. I want to do the same for the two of you."

"Alright, so what do we need to do?" Callie asked. She couldn't claim to know much about law, but she loved what Lily was saying about love making a family. To her, the three of them were already a family, now they needed Lily to prove that to the court.

"There are some papers you two need to fill out, and I'll help you through them. Then we'll send them to the court. If they love what they see, they could easily approve it right on the spot. That very rarely happens, however. More than likely they will send a social worker out to your home, probably more than once. Usually one is an announced visit, the other unannounced. After that again they could either approve the request or schedule a hearing. Because of the circumstances I'm already planning for worst case scenario," Lily told them, wanting them to be prepared. "It's not going to all happen overnight either. It could be weeks or months between each step. I don't want you to get discouraged if it takes awhile," she turned a glance at Arizona, knowing she had more to lose here.

"I'll try not to." She couldn't promise she wouldn't, but Arizona would try to remain hopeful throughout the process.

"You said you split your time between here and L.A. What does that mean in terms of our case?" Callie asked when she realized how long of a process this truly was, and wanting to know if the lawyer would be around or not.

"I can see how that would be a concern," Lily started, wanting to put both girls at ease by showing that she was listening and understood. "As I said early, I only take a few cases at a time, and with it being close to summer yours will be the only case I take on until we reach the end, one way or another. That way I'll have more time with my kids. If I happen to be in L.A. when you need me, your father has already offered his jet, promising I could be home each night for dinner."

"That could be a lot of flying," Arizona joked, earning a laugh from the other two. "Hope you don't mind planes."

"Believe me, there are worse places to be locked inside," Lily responded without elaborating. "Now, do we need to schedule another time to fill out the paperwork, or is now a good time?"

Callie glanced at Arizona letting her make the call. She didn't have any pressing homework that needed to be done tonight. "I'm good, what about you?"

Arizona thought about it, the only work she had was Spanish and Callie could help her get that done quickly later on. Arizona had been taking Spanish for years and loved the language. But she was really grateful to have Callie now, who was fluent, to help her when she struggled. "I'm good, too. So long as you help me with Spanish tonight."

Callie smiled, giving Arizona a quick peck on the lips. Arizona took that as a yes, and turned back to see the smile on Lily's face. She blushed slightly at a virtual stranger seeing their display of affection but didn't feel guilty about it.

"Alright then," Lily said, grabbing a stack of papers and moving towards the small kitchen table. "Let's set up over here and get to work."

The two girls stood and followed the lawyer, both excited to take this next step for their family.

A/N2: For any of you that haven't read the Shaken Series by KG MacGregor… you should! Without Warning is my absolute favorite book in the world! (But sorry for spoiling it for you a bit, still read!) As for anyone out there who have read it, would you like to see the whole Kaklis clan? They won't be permanent fixtures, but I've been toying with the idea of them popping in for a scene or two.