AN: hey guys, sorry for the delay. The only reason for it is life. I am sorry. Are you even still with me?
"Do you think we should have called in advance?", Arizona asked her wife when they stopped in front of her best friend's apartment door, the Latina's hand interlaced with hers as she was about to knock on the surface. They had landed in New York at precisely 4pm and after a rough and stressful morning, she had suggested to stay at the hotel at first. Maybe even for tonight. Their baby had given the brunette a hard time during the flight, something Callie usually enjoyed, spending most of the time observing the clouds. Today though, she had to fight her body to keep the food inside and then she had gotten even more sick when they were miles high in the air. But Callie had insisted on surprising the redhead today and not wait until tomorrow.
"I called the hospital when you were in the shower earlier. They said she had left about three hours ago and wasn't on call", she informed Arizona and then stifled a yawn, the lack of sleep from last night still very prominent in her system. But she could live with one sleepless night. As a doctor, she was used to spend hours on her feet and last night had been family festivities, so she really didn't care that she only got five hours of sleep. "And if she's not home, we'll call her."
Nodding, the blonde pressed her lips against her lover's cheek for a short peck and then knocked on the door. The two women waited, trying to make out any sound from the other side of the door, but for several minutes there was nothing and then they heard something obviously crashing on the floor and followed by a "Shit!", most definitely cursed by Addison. Laughing at her best friend's typical behavior, Arizona shared a knowing look with the Latina. "At least we know she's at home.
The very same second, the door flung open, the redhead greeting the married couple with a blanket wrapped around her – what Callie and Arizona assumed – otherwise naked body and some messy bed hair covering her eyes. Only when Addison looked up, a disappointed, "Well, I guess you are not delivering my pizza" came. She didn't step away nor invited them inside, though, instead she opted to scratch the back of her head and tried to look as innocent as possible.
Blue eyes were still widened in shock, her mouth slack-jawed as the blonde stared at the woman she called her best friend. There wasn't really much room to interpret the redhead's appearance in more than one direction, the other woman's appearance basically oozed of sex, and Arizona was not sure whether to yell at her or just storm inside and throw whoever was in there out of the apartment – for Teddy's sake. "Addison Adriane Forbes Montgomery!", she eventually shrieked when she could rip herself out of her frozen state. "I can't believe you!" Trying to storm past the puzzled woman standing between the doorway, she felt a hand holding her back while Addison blocked her way. "How could you do this to Teddy! She loves you. That woman loves you and instead of forgiving her and being happy again, you screw another person? In the apartment that was supposed to be your first real shared home, aside from your dorm room? You can't be serious."
Letting her wife rant on about how unfair this all was to Teddy, Callie rubbed her hand up and down the blonde's back, the soothing motion quickly showed the desired effect when Arizona lowered her voice to a normal volume. If the intuitive assumption they had both thought of was indeed true, she would still have all the time to be mad at Addison. But for now, she was giving her wife's best friend the benefit of the doubt, even if it was a small doubt. "Maybe you should let us in", she suggested, shooting her friend a stern glare.
"Yeah", Addison nodded, swallowing thickly and retreating quickly into her apartment, excusing herself with the words that she was just going to put some more appropriate clothes on.
Since the couple had been here before, both walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Callie knew that Arizona was fuming. Between all this mess of their best friend's relationship, the blonde had most of the times been afraid that Addison would jump back into old habits of meaningless one-night-stands or short relationships. "I don't get it", Arizona declared finally. "They have been so good for each other. Teddy flourished since she was with Addie. She's gotten over her fears and shyness once they were established. And Addison had changed for the better, too. Not so..."
When Callie saw that her wife was still searching for the right word, she offered, "Man-eater-ish?", and chuckled. Addison wasn't that bad, really. She enjoyed sex and the brunette would never be the person to tell anyone what to do or not, especially since she enjoyed sex probably just as much. She simply got lucky to find the one and only so early in her life. But she had also noticed the change in the redhead's behavior ever since she had been with Teddy, the wild days had been over, so to speak.
"I swear, Calliope, if there's a man in there, I'm gonna call Teddy right now and let Addie explain everything to her", Arizona stated, her eyes fixated on the door to Addison's bedroom. The blonde was taught to protect the ones she loved, she didn't care if this love was platonic or romantic, she would protect her lover's best friend from this, no matter what. The redhead had yet to come back, but they could hear whoever was in there with her talking, not loud enough to make out any words or voice, though. "I know you said we should not interfere and usually, I listen to you and cool down, but this is going too far. Teddy is still hurting and Addie is using sex to forget about the woman she loves and that is-" But the rest of her sentence died right on her tongue as the redhead reemerged from her bedroom, dragging a flustered looking Teddy out of the room as well.
"Teddy?!" This time it was brown eyes that went wide. She had prepared herself for everything, everything but that. A man, another woman, but not Teddy. That was definitely a surprise. A pleasant one, of course, but she had definitely not expected to see what was right in front of her. Blinking a couple of times to make sure that this was not a dream, she kept staring at her best friend.
"Hey...", the other blonde said, knowing that Callie and Arizona were most likely waiting for an explanation. She really hoped for Addison's support here, but the redhead let go of her hand as another series of hard knocks on the door sounded through the apartment. Not exactly knowing what to do with herself and what to say, she chose to sit down on the other couch and waited for Addie to come back to her. "You look amazing, Callie, I have always liked that haircut. You too Arizona." The couple just kept staring at her, so she asked, "So... why are you here?"
"We?", Arizona asked incredulously. "We are on vacation with the intention to kick your butts in the right direction again. But apparently, that isn't necessary anymore and you what? You just forgot to tell us?!" Feeling a warm hand on her thigh, she sensed that she might be overreacting, but she couldn't help being pissed. She had spent hours, nights and days worrying about their friends and how they were coping with the whole situation, when apparently, there was no need to worry anymore. "Since when has this been going on again?"
"Relax, Arizona", Addison sighed when she came back, placing the pizza box on the coffee table before sitting down next to Teddy. "It's only been a week and a half, and frankly we couldn't get a hold of either of you for the past days. You were either at the hospital or God knows doing what, and apparently, you've been on a plane to New York without telling us." She knew that Arizona was pissed and she could partly understand why, but on the other hand, she didn't want to jinx whatever second chance she and Teddy were given. "It's not even... We don't even know. We haven't talked about it", she admitted, exchanging a soft smile with the blonde next to her. "We're taking it as it is. For now, we know that we want to give it another try. We've talked more than enough about everything that led to the break-up in the first place and we promised to be honest with each other and that is a start." Giving Teddy's hand a soft squeeze, she looked back at the other couple and waited.
"She is right, honey", Callie admitted. "We have been really busy for the past weeks, you know that. Work and everything around it has just been hectic." The anger she had felt towards their red-haired friend had vanished the moment she saw Teddy exciting Addie's bedroom. It could have been so much worse and so much more destroying for their small group of friends and she was just glad that it wasn't. She could even understand where the other couple was coming from, taking it slow and everything, and in the end, it was their decision, their lives. She just wished they would see that they are miserable apart.
Feeling her rage crumble down bit by bit by just looking at the two women sitting across from her, Arizona eventually managed to smile. "It's about damn time you two get your heads out of your asses", she grinned. "Because-", but she stopped herself right there, before she could tell their friends their little secret. To be honest, she had been more hurt than angry that they hadn't said anything, but she had to agree with her wife as well, they had been so very busy. With work. With celebrating. With the family dinner and preparing their little vacation. She could even remember a couple of missed calls, but it had always been too late to call when she had seen them. "So, since one pizza isn't enough, I suggest we're going out for dinner."
"Dinner? Why can't we just order some more pizza?", Teddy asked. She loved pizza and she was thankful that Addie actually went out the other day to find a place where they made pizza for people with diabetes. Sure, they cost a little more, but that was something she was willing to pay if that meant that she could have one of her favorite dishes again.
"Yeah, why can't we just order more pizza?", Callie repeated her best friend's question, staring at her wife disbelievingly. Arizona was not a person to turn down pizza, never. In fact, during college and medical school, especially during exams, the Latina had been the one to make sure that the blonde would eat anything but pizza. On long days, she had given in and they had decided not to cook dinner but order in and that was a decision made to save time to study. It just didn't make sense to her. "Arizona?"
"Really, Calliope? Pizza?"
The look the blonde gave her wife didn't go unnoticed by their friends and Addison immediately asked, "Why isn't Callie allowed to have pizza? It's not that bad, I promise. It's made for people with diabetes, so whatever Callie has, she can have that pizza too."
"It's no big deal, really", the brunette answered. She had done her research and knew that some pizzas were definitely not good for the growing fetus inside her, but she could avoid them and still enjoy the glorious Italian dish. "Just... no meat lovers and certain toppings are... off the table for the time being, same goes for some types of cheese", she added and cleared her throat when she looked into two faces which had confusion written all over them.
"Why are you two acting so weird?", Teddy asked, speaking out loud what Addie had been thinking. "And what's wrong with cheese and meat lovers? You love meat lovers, Callie."
"That I do", Callie agreed, her face already breaking into a megawatt smile when she thought about what to say next. "Just not for the next, let's say thirty-four weeks. Because I am six weeks pregnant and the-" She didn't get to finish her sentence. Within three seconds after the words had left her mouth, she was pulled up and into two crushing hugs from both sides while squeals of "Oh my God" and "Seriously? Seriously?" filled the air. Yes, this was the reaction she had hoped for.
A-C-T
Two hours and all in all five empty pizza boxes later, the two couples – whether married or trying to figure out where they were going – had decided to go out to Addison's favorite bar just around the corner of her apartment. It was pretty convenient, no need to doll up if you didn't feel like it, yet the atmosphere was great if you wanted to dance or just have something to drink. The music wasn't too loud to have conversations either. So, Arizona sat in one of the booths with her best friend keeping her company, while the other two were on the dance floor, shaking their hips to the rhythm of an upbeat song the blonde didn't know.
"She looks happy", Addison said, ripping Arizona's eyes away from the woman on the dance floor. "And you're still staring", she snickered, knowing that she had been staring as well and secretly hoping that the want to blatantly stare would never die.
"She is happy", the blonde agreed and took another sip of her fruit cocktail. Callie had told her earlier that she didn't have to stop drinking alcohol just because she couldn't have any booze for the next months, but Arizona still had insisted about doing it out of solidarity, thinking that it wasn't fair if the Latina had to carry her home. She would never get too drunk, of course, but right now, she was content with the virgin version of her favorite fruity drink and watching the brunette's heavenly body moving back and forth, occasionally spinning the other blonde around. "She's glowing already", she gushed.
"That she is", the redhead said and laughed at her best friend's facial expression. Arizona's eyes were dreamy, glazed with love and pure adoration for her wife. "Does it ever get old?", she asked, looking down on her hands which were playing with the empty cocktail glass. "The staring, I mean. The feeling of waking up next to each other. The feeling that there is only this one person that makes you so happy that you don't even think about that there could be something or even someone else?"
Taking her eyes once again off the dancing woman, blue orbs found her best friend's and Arizona tilted her head, thinking about the other woman's words. "No", she answered after a minute. "It doesn't get old. I love her. I can't picture my life with anybody else, even if she wouldn't want to be with me anymore. Even when she's moody, I am always looking forward to coming home to her." As she spoke, a wide smile had spread over her face. Just thinking about the Latina could do that to her. "Why do you ask? Are you having second thoughts about this whole trying again thing?"
"No." Addison shook her head, her finger swiping over the rim of her glass. "No, no second thoughts. I want to give us a second chance, just... Before Teddy and I got together, I was always the 'never lose your heart, use your head' type and when she broke up with me, I tried to be that girl again. The one that's wary and tries to shield her heart from everything. I didn't play hard to get, I was just trying to protect my heart, even from Teddy, even though she promised she was all in now."
"So, why the question?", the blonde wondered, pursing her lips as she waited for an answer.
Addison took a moment, giving herself some time to phrase the sentence in her head before saying, "I couldn't be that woman again because she is in my heart and in my head. Everywhere I went, I saw Teddy. Every time we bumped into each other or had to work together at the hospital, my heart did somersaults. It's a scary thought, to miss someone that much, to love a person that much that you can't function without them. My head and my heart were telling me that she is the one I want to be staring at for the rest of my life, but I was still scared that we would mess this up again."
"Oh Addie", Arizona started, the dimples already popping out on full force as she tapped the redhead's arm with her hand, "You're not going to mess this up again. You're so whipped, maybe just as bad as I am, you're going to be fine. Take it day by day, just as you said earlier. It's the best you both can do for now." Glancing over, seeing that their women were still dancing, she looked back at her friend. "I am sorry for being so snippy when you opened the door."
"It's okay, I get it", the red-haired woman replied. "If the tables were turned, I'd do the same, I guess. Especially when you would open the door to your apartment wrapped up in a blanket, obviously naked under it and everything. You didn't know that I was with Teddy. And if you'd ever only think about getting dirty with anyone but Callie, I'd kick your ass too." Her words were partly meant as a joke, but at the same time, she was dead serious. "I'd kick her ass too, you know that, right?"
"Of course I do. But I don't think you ever have to worry about that", she replied with a bright smile. "She's the only one I ever want. And I think that says a lot about us. We've been together for the better part of our lives now, I mean, almost seven year ago I've kissed my bride and now I wait to hear my baby's cry. Everybody keeps telling us that it's surreal to find a love like that, but I would never change anything about us." Sensing that Callie was watching her, she exchanged a loving look with her wife and winked at her, before turning her attention back to Addison. "You know, it didn't work on the first and second try. It's our third attempt and even that seemed not to have worked at first. And Callie was sad and moody and somehow, she seemed devastated enough to stop trying altogether. It wasn't the easiest time, for neither of us, but where some couples in this situation argue and fight and just drift further apart, we talked about everything and I think it made us even stronger."
Sighing, Addie's eyes sought out the woman on the dance floor. She wanted that too. Then suddenly, she realized what her best friend had said. "Wait, you've been trying that long already and have not said anything?", she asked, her eyes shining with amusement, knowing all too well what a big challenge that must have been for the blonde. But she could understand it. The pressure of bringing good news and people asking every time, that couldn't be easy, so the decision to keep it a secret was probably the best. "That's the reason Callie is so happy", she concluded.
"Yes. She's over the moon", Arizona grinned and emptied the rest of her glass. She had been watching the scene on the dance floor unfold before her eyes where two women were dancing up to Callie and Teddy and even though her jealousy was already on a pretty low level – there wasn't a reason not to trust her wife – she didn't like other women approaching the brunette. "I think we should dance too."
"Why? You don't like dancing in public that much." When Arizona forced her to look in their lover's direction, she practically jumped out of the booth, agreeing with the blonde's sudden urge to dance. Making their way over, she ungracefully moved between the Latina and Teddy, effectively making the strange woman behind her girlfriend back away. "I hope you don't mind?", she asked, shooting the brunette a knowing glance.
"Not at all", Callie chuckled and stepped back, her body colliding with another female body and her lips instantly morphed into a megawatt smile. Turning around, she was met with blue eyes raking over her dancing body and she interlaced their fingers, bringing their hands up and kissing the paler skin. "Hey you. What are you doing here? I thought you didn't want to dance."
"Changed my mind", the blonde answered with a shrug of her shoulders and snaked the hand that wasn't holding her wife's around the brunette's hips and onto the small of her back, pulling her closer. Rising up on her toes, she pressed a gentle kiss on full lips before nuzzling the Latin's neck with her nose and lips. "I love you", she mumbled into the ends of dark locks, hiding her reddening cheeks.
But the brunette was having none of that. She lifted her lover's face with her hand cupping the jawline she had spent numerous hours of her life kissing and nipping on, and connected their lips once again. Slow and sensual, feeling no need to rush anything or giving the people around them a show. "I love you too", she breathed against pink lips and brought their foreheads together as they swayed to the music. "Addie's okay?"
"Of course", she nodded. "They'll make it. She loves Teddy, not that her feelings were ever in question, but she told me that she couldn't get Teds out of her head and heart, so I think it's safe to say they'll be happy again." Picking some of the brown tresses that had fallen into her wife's face and tucking them behind Callie's ear. "Addie said that you look happy", she stated, blue eyes flickering up and locking with brown. "And I had to agree. You look happy. And hot and beautiful and-" She was cut off by another kiss.
"I am happy. So happy." Taking their joint hands and placing them over her stomach, she added, "We are happy. But I'm also getting a little tired so we should head to the hotel in a bit. Unless you want to dance some more, you could stay here, of course."
"Never", the blonde answered immediately. It wasn't even a choice that had to be made. She would always prefer going home with Callie instead of letting her wife go home alone. Letting go of the Latina, Arizona moved past her wife and tapped the other blonde's shoulder. "We're heading to the hotel, Callie's getting tired and my wife and baby need their rest. Wanna meet up for lunch tomorrow?", she asked. Their friends had told them that they were both off work tomorrow which admittedly, couldn't be timed any better. "Around one?"
"Yeah, sure", Teddy nodded. "Take your wife to bed. We'll talk tomorrow." Noticing her best friend's hands roaming over Arizona's hips, she was pretty sure that they wouldn't go to sleep any time soon, but she would not point that out. Instead, she would suggest the same to Addison, knowing that the redhead would not say no to some sexual intercourse. "We'll pick you up at the hotel, okay?!
"Sounds perfect", Arizona agreed, hugged their best friends and said good night. She waited for Callie to do the same before she clasped her hand around her wife's and led her out of the club. Entering the chilly night air, the blonde stopped just outside of the club and turned around, grinning mischievously. "You are aware of the fact that Teddy saw your hands roaming over my hips, right? And that our friends are not stupid, they know your intentions."
"So, what if they do? It doesn't bother me." Pulling her wife close against her body, her hands started to wander on their own accord again as she dipped her head lower, capturing Arizona's lips in a kiss so much different to the one they'd shared on the dance floor. This one oozed of passion, it was dripping with lust and lazed with so much want, that it took the blonde's breath away. "Let's get to the hotel, I want to make love to my wife."