AN: Okay guys, here's the new chapter. There's only a couple of chapters left of this story, maybe a handful. Thank you so much for sticking with me and this journey, through thick and thin, through updates and lack of updates. You guys are an awesome crowd!

Many thanks to all of you who took and take time to review. And also to the ones who reached out to me through PMs. Feedback is always welcomed!


A week and a half later, with only four days left until Christmas Eve, Callie found herself looking forward to her maternity leave more and more. And that was a weird feeling. She loved her job, loved seeing the change she made in somebody's life just by giving them a new hip, a new knee or maybe a robot limb like she did last week with Dr. Shimmer. And the teenage girl was so happy with her new prosthetic, saying that she could finally learn to run properly. It was incredible, life-altering in some cases. And a couple of days ago, when their best friends had been in Seattle for a spontaneous visit and a super romantic proposal with an afterwards celebratory dinner, the Latina had still thought that she would hate going on leave. That not going into the hospital every day would make her feel annoyed. But the truth was, the past ten days had changed a lot. She had changed, her body had changed some more due to one of the last growth spurts and everything just ached. Her feet were swollen, her arms and legs grew tired after an hour of working and being reduced to do the charting and minor cases just wasn't enough for the brunette. So now, with only one full week left before she would start her maternity leave, she was actually wishing it was closer.

Flipping the charts close, Callie checked her phone and found a text from her wife she had received two minutes ago, telling her to meet her in the cafeteria for lunch. She could definitely use another break, so she turned to the nurse behind the desk and said, "If Dr. Shimmer needs me for post ops or any broken wrists, just page me." Getting a nod in return, the brunette walked – more like waddled towards the elevator. Taking the stairs was still a possibility, but she knew she would hate herself later if she'd take them. Another thing she wasn't happy about, everything just took longer. Taking a shower, getting dressed or putting on shoes. Her belly was just always in the way.

The Latina entered the cafeteria and checked the tables for her wife before grabbing an apple from one of the bowls and prepared herself a salad from the bar of ingredients. Usually, she would read the day's menu so she wouldn't have to cook after work – just another thing she was too tired for and take-out every night wasn't as satisfying as it used to be when she was younger, but she and Arizona had dinner plans for tonight and a salad would be enough to get her through the rest of her shift. Paying for her food, Callie heard Mark's deep laughter accompanied with her wife's melodic one and smiled. The three of them got along fairly well, they grew as a group during their internship years. Deep inside, Mark was a good guy, a little man-whorish and even a douchebag sometimes, but all in all, he was a nice guy. He had definitely grown out of his childish behavior after college. "Hey you two", she greeted them and sat down before leaning in and pecking her wife's lips. "What's up?"

"Mark has a crush on one of the new interns", the blonde answered in a singsong voice and smirked at the man. "And it seems like she's the first woman to turn him down." Sticking one of her fries in her mouth, Arizona took her lover's hand under the table and smiled in content. "Which is actually not really a surprise." To be honest, she wondered why it took so long. Granted, he was good looking and smart. But even if she would be interested in men, him sleeping around and his past filled with one-night-stands wouldn't be appealing to her either.

Grumbling, Mark bit into his apple – the only thing he ever seemed to eat while being at work. "I just don't get it", he complained after swallowing down the bite of fruit. "She's been on my service yesterday and she has given me the icy stares and cold shoulder from the start. I haven't done anything to her!", he adds, raising his voice loud enough for the nurses and doctors sitting at the tables near them to turn their heads and look at them. "Sorry", Mark mumbled and lowered his eyes to the edge of the table.

"Who are we exactly talking about?", Callie wanted to know. Seeing their friend like this was actually kind of new, like he was showing them a different side of him, a side the brunette thought was really humble and lovely. One she was sure, a lot of women would find rather nice. After all, Mark seemed to have a heart. "Please don't tell me it's Marcy. Because that woman is... well, as a matter of fact, horrible. I can't stand her voice, it makes me cringe and want to flee the room." She felt bad for saying it like it was, for feeling this way towards another person, but she couldn't help it either.

"It's not!", Mark immediately clarified. He could only recall weird encounters with Marcy, the overachieving intern, as well. "Uni-brow? Really Callie?"

"Mark, be nice!", Arizona chastised, cutting the man off with a big grin. She wasn't a fan of Marcy either. The intern boasted about her knowledge, but the blonde was certain she wasn't even half as smart as she pretended. "And, no. It's better than that. It's Lexie Grey."

"Little Grey?", Callie asked, disbelievingly staring at the man. "Seriously? Meredith Grey's little sister does it for you? Wow." Lexie was a pretty girl, but also really young since she had skipped a few classes in school and one year of college – the perks of being blessed with photographic memory – and aced through med school after that. She was three years younger than her fellow interns and still the smartest – if at times a little insecure and coy – of all of them. Marcy actually didn't hold a candle to Little Grey's brain and memory. "Seriously, wow."

Shaking his head, Mark looked at his friends for a moment before he hung his head. "That doesn't change anything though. She's not interested. On the contrary, I think she hates me. But I swear, I haven't done anything bad, not that I remember anyway. I am polite, I even brought her coffee yesterday morning and tried to start a nice conversation, she's not interested. In any of that."

Arizona watched her friend's shoulder slump in defeat and she realized, she had never seen Mark like this. Taking pity on the usually so confident – sometimes even overconfident up to the point of arrogance – man, Arizona pushed her empty plate away and leaned over the table. "Do you want to know why she possibly acts like she does?" Mark nodded and the blonde explained, "Everybody is busy gossiping around in this hospital. Some news spreads faster than a wildfire, Mark. She's probably heard all about your reputation, knows your sex life just as well as you do, without having talked to you once. And she doesn't need to, she just needs to find a nurse or overhear a few of them talking about you." Because he hadn't been able to keep it in his pants. Nobody really knew how many women he had slept with.

Knowing that his friend was right, yet suffering a little dent in his ego, Mark thought about the blonde's words. Maybe there was a pretty small chance that he could try and convince Lexie that this wasn't all he was. He liked sex, he liked beautiful women and the easy way. Relationships were hard work, work he didn't want to put into something he knew wouldn't last long. But he could change, he had done it once in med school – and even though that relationship had gone down after a year, he had been happy with only one woman. He had a feeling that Lexie could have the same effect on him. Although, admittedly, he had no clue how his friends did it, how they were still so happy. "How do you do it? How are you two still so much in love that you don't even look at other women? It's sweet, don't get me wrong, but there must be a secret behind it."

Putting her arms around the Latina's back, Arizona looked at her wife and instantly smiled widely. Why would there ever be a reason for her to look at another woman? Callie was so beautiful. The radiant megawatt smile, the glow she had all over her since she was pregnant, the hot curves and the outstanding soul that formed her character. And that wasn't even all the blonde loved about the Latina, just the very obvious things. "There could be a hundred beautiful women in the same room with me. They could even be naked and flock to me like mosquitoes to the light and I wouldn't be interested. It only takes one look at my wife and I am mesmerized all over again. I'm completely captivated by her."

Swooning at her lover's words, Callie sighed when she heard the nurses at the table next to them utter a couple of 'Aawws', and frankly, she felt like making exactly the same sound. The blonde's feeling mirrored hers completely and right this moment Arizona had simply said the right words. The brunette knew they were one of the lucky ones, that their history together was one that only happened rarely, that their hearts were two in a million who found their way to each other. "I love you", she whispered in her wife's ear and then addressed the man, "Mark, the heart of a woman is like a big wide ocean."

Not understanding what the Latina was trying to tell him, he asked, "What? What does that even mean? I'm gonna drown in it anyway? Or will I be floating? Should I beware of the sharks?" Why did women always have to be so confusing? Why couldn't they just straight out say what they meant? He needed more male friends. Maybe he and Karev could get a few drinks this week, it seemed like he needed a good drinking buddy.

"No, you jerk. Start swimming!", Callie managed to say before the cafeteria was filled with the blaring sound of various pagers going off. "This seems to be something big", she groaned and rubbed her lower back. "And here I thought we'd be out of here in time."

"We have to", the blonde chimed in, getting up and grabbing both, hers and her wife's tray. "And we will. I have a surprise for you when we get home. So we'll have dinner at the Italian restaurant we love so much, then, if you're up for it, we'll go for a short walk and when we get home, you'll get to see an early Christmas present", she promised, kissed the brunette a little longer than intended and was gone the next second to answer the page to the ER.

A-C-T

It was close to nine in the evening when the couple neared their home, strolling down the streets as one mittens-clad hand held one without any protection from the cold air. The dinner had been deliciously perfect and the conversation had flowed easily between them as they talked about everything that wasn't work related. Even the silence had been comfortable, both simply enjoying the time together, knowing that in a few short weeks, quality time between lovers could possibly become a little rare. The excitement outweighed every potential frustration, but still, Arizona wanted to soak up every alone-time with the Latina she could get. "That was quite nice", she said when they were roughly five minutes away from their front door. "And it's even better that neither of us has to go into work early tomorrow." She would cover the night shifts until Christmas Eve and she knew Callie's shift wouldn't start before noon tomorrow either. Tonight, it was definitely for their benefit. "Would you like a hot bath or is there anything specific you want to do after the surprise I have for you?"

"Ooh, the surprise!", the brunette said, grinning from ear to ear. Over dinner, she had tried to get a hint out of her lover, but over the years, Arizona's impatience had faded away. She could keep secrets about surprises and wouldn't let slip one bit about them anymore. It made giving presents to their parents and friends a lot easier for her. But not being able to coax her wife into spilling the beans was also kind of a bummer. "Maybe, if you play your cards right, we could... get naked and enjoy some time together?", she suggested, wiggling her shaped eyebrows at the blonde. Being intimate with her wife hadn't been her number one priority in the past few weeks, getting a hold of her exhaustion and taking care of the little one inside her had been more important. Arizona had been the most understanding wife, but it had been a long time and she missed be close with the blonde, feeling her, hearing her gasps and moans. Leaning in, she whispered, "Maybe means definitely, just so we're clear."

Gulping at the sultry sound that resonated in her lover's voice, Arizona couldn't help letting her eyes travel over the Latina's body. Although covered with clothes – or maybe in spite of the clothes – she imagined the darker skin complexion shining in dim light, glistening from exertion and writhing under the touch of her tongue. God, it had been weeks since the brunette had felt sexy enough to let her touch her. "Oh... uhm...", she stuttered, her brain unable to form coherent words, let alone a full sentence. Involuntarily, she started to walk a little bit faster and only recognized it when Callie began to chuckle while keeping up with her. A blush crept its way into her cheeks and she looked down at the footpath. They were so close to the house now and she honestly wished they were inside already so she could kiss her wife properly and rip the Latina's clothes off.

"You're adorable", Callie smiled and brushed a chaste kiss against a cold cheek, squeezing the hand that was holding hers as they walked the rest of the way in silence, reaching their home within the next two minutes. Once inside, she didn't get a chance to take off her coat, it was literally zipped open and pushed over her shoulders as her lips were attacked by another set of lips. A gasp left her mouth when her back collided with the wall and a thigh slipped between hers as fingertips sneaked under the fabric of her top to caress the skin of her sides. Barely managing to rip her lips away from the passionate kiss, the Latina breathlessly stared at the blonde. Hunger swirled in blue eyes, a couple of shades darker from the lust that had taken over Arizona and the brunette swallowed hard. It was raw arousal, fire and want. Brown orbs flickered down to pink lips before white teeth bit into a full bottom lip. "Arizona...", she rasped, snapping her wife out of her daze.

Taking a minute to clear her head from the fog of uninhibited lust, Arizona cleared her throat and eventually said, "Come on, I'll show you your early Christmas present. But", she stopped and took off her own coat, "you need to close your eyes. I'll guide you, I swear if you promise not to peek." She had set this up perfectly and with a little help from her dad – okay, a lot of help from her father – it was doable and she was sure her wife would like her surprise. It was astounding what Colonel Robbins could do with a construction manual and pictures as a model. Her idea and her father's gifted hands had made it perfect. And she really needed to show Callie this. "Eyes closed?"

"Yes, Arizona", the Latina answered, despite disliking not being able to see anything. She wasn't a fan of those kind of surprises, especially since it seemed like Arizona wanted to lead her upstairs. The issue was that she didn't know how many steps the stairs had. In the house she grew up in after being adopted, she knew the number of steps because she had counted them so many times as a child. And it was the same with the Robbins' house, so walking up those stairs with her eyes closed wasn't hard. But she didn't count the steps anymore, and she felt a little uncomfortable to walk up the stairs this way.

"I promise not to let you trip, if that is what keeps the wheels in your head turning so loudly", Arizona giggled, knowing all too well what her lover was thinking. She had been there with her a couple of times. The Latina hated being blindfolded, so she already stopped doing that. But she still wanted Callie to close her eyes. "I'm not letting anything happen to you or our baby. You know that." When the brunette nodded, she took her lover's hands and carefully led both of them upstairs and down the hall until she stopped in front of the nursery. It was finally finished, ready whenever Melody would choose to come into this world. "Eyes still closed?", she asked.

"Yes, Arizona, of course." Callie actually rolled her eyes, not that her wife would know because her eyelids were still closed, but she just couldn't stop it. "But you do know, that I know, that we're upstairs, right? And I also know that we're in front of the nursery, so I could have walked here alone."

"That would have taken away so much from my surprise, Calliope", the blonde countered and opened the door just the width of a slit to switch on the light. Making sure that her lover still had her eyes closed, she walked them inside and positioned the Latina right in front of the new piece of furniture, situated right next to the crib she and her dad had put together yesterday afternoon. Callie didn't know it was there yet, but she knew what it looked like from when they had purchased it. She didn't have a clue about her surprise though. "Alright, you can open your eyes, if you want."

Not needing to be told twice, brown eyes fluttered open and after taking a moment to get used to the light in the room, she inhaled sharply and stared wide-eyed at the rocking chair that had not been there yesterday before she had left for work. It looked exactly like the one she knew her mother had rocked her and Aria in while singing lullabies or nursing them. She had no actual memory of that time, obviously. But she knew exactly which photo album contained pictures of that rocking chair, showing her mother or her father holding her and her sister as infants. "It looks exactly like... but it can't be." She knew she had donated that one to the orphanage.

"It's not. My dad built this copy. I just gave him pictures of it and we searched online for a manual. He made sure it's safe", she explained, keeping her voice low so she wouldn't ruin the moment for her wife as caramel colored fingers traced the wooden framework of the chair down to its right armrest. Her eyes never left the brunette, the awe-struck look on the Latina's face and the elation that shone in brown eyes was worth studying her for hours. Not that Arizona really needed a reason to openly stare at her lover, at any time, but right now, Callie just looked a tad bit more beautiful than just a few minutes ago. "You like it?"

Not looking up, but fighting with her tears of happiness, Callie nodded. It did look exactly like the old rocking chair her father had inherited from his own mother. Three generations of Torres babies had been rocked in that chair until she chose to give it away for a good cause. "I love it. Thank you. For the chair and setting up the crib", she whispered, finally meeting her wife's gaze. "I can't believe your dad built this. It's like an exact copy of the original, I think it's even the same kind of wood."
"It is", the blonde assured her. She and Daniel had gone to the orphanage to inspect the chair and then bought the wood. "And you should have seen him work on it. He was so happy he had finally something to do, feeling needed and all that. And my mom was happy he had something to do and didn't sit in her kitchen watching her cook for a few days", she snickered. "He doesn't like being kind of retired, even though he can't keep up with the young soldiers anymore and he hasn't been deployed in a couple of years already, it's different now. It's an adjustment and he's having a hard time." It was worse than everybody had anticipated, because her grandfather had accommodated fairly well after completely retiring. But he still got up with the sun, went for a run and then he just sat around, not knowing what to do with all his free time. Once he could start training the new soldiers it would get better, but it was still a couple of months until then. "He will love being a grandpa." Both sets of parents would enjoy being grandparents.

Smiling, Callie glanced into the crib and noticed a wrapped up package. "Is that from you?", she asked, picking it up and opening the small card that was attached to it. "It's for you." Before she could give the package to her wife, Arizona snapped the card out of her hand and read it.

"It's from my mother. An early Christmas present to go with Calliope's", she quoted. "Did you have anything to do with it?" They were so well-matched, she wouldn't be taken by surprise if they had both planned to give each other something before the actual Christmas morning. But Callie shook her head and the blonde furrowed her brows in confusion. "Well, since we can be sure it's not a bomb, I'll just open it", she tried to joke and pulled on the ribbon, leaving the present in her wife's hands. Easing off the tape, the wrapping paper soon slipped away and revealed something both women instantly realized. "Oh my God", Arizona gasped and carefully put her right hand on the fabric, making sure she wasn't dreaming. "It's Grammy's patchwork quilt", she sniffed, remembering the nights at her grandparents', sleeping under that very same blanket. She missed her grandmother every day, but now she really wanted to hug her. "Calliope..."

"I know, love, I know", the Latina simply stated and hugged her wife with the quilt held tightly between them. She fought against her own tears from her own memories about Grandma Robbins, a woman who was greatly missed. She would have loved to see her first great-grandchild and it was sad she would never get the chance. "We'll tell Melody all about Grammy. Everything she needs to know about the strong woman who raised your father." Pressing a soothing kiss against her lover's temple, the couple stood there in the nursery, both silently thinking about things of the past and expectations of their future.


I really hope you liked this little bundle of fluff and fun. The next chapter will be a Christmas chapter, so we all get in the mood after Halloween ;)