A/N – So, lately I simply end up writing very long chapters :-o, I still haven't finished this one and it was already quite long so I have decided to split it into two so that you would at least get an update until I finish writing the rest. Good news is that I have also started writing the following chapter too so you will be getting new updates over the next days. Okay, so here I leave you something to read while I go back to writing :-).
CHAPTER 11
FRIDAY EVENING CONTINUED
Callie parked her car and walked to Meredith's house with a smile on her face.
"Hey, so how was the date?", Meredith asked opening the door.
"It was great!" Callie said with a smile. "Tough at moments, but also really nice. We talk about so many things now and we don't argue, it's refreshing."
"That's really great, I'm glad," Meredith smiled.
"How were the girls?"
"I didn't even know they were here, they played together all the time."
Callie smiled.
"So are you going to explain what happened earlier this week?" Meredith asked.
"Mommy!" Sofia exclaimed running towards Callie.
"Hi honey, did you have a nice time?" Callie asked taking Sofia into her arms.
"Yes! I love playing with Zola."
"And Zola likes playing with you," Meredith added with a smile.
"Come on, go get your things, we need to go home," Callie said putting Sofia down.
"But I want to play more!" Sofia protested.
"Honey it's almost 9 pm, you should have already been preparing for bed. Go get your things and say goodnight to Zola."
Sofia ran back into the living room as Callie turned to Meredith.
"It's kind of a long story about Wednesday, rain check? Because I really should get her to bed..."
"Yeah, sure, so what are you two doing tomorrow? I was thinking of getting some fresh air with the kids."
"Well, Arizona is picking Sofia up tomorrow, but I don't know exactly when, we've agreed she'd call me when she wakes up."
"Oh, right, she's still working night shift."
"We could go to the park in the morning but isn't it going to rain?" Callie said.
"Really? I didn't even check the forecast. Well, let's see… if there's rain, why don't you come for dinner tomorrow, do you have any plans?"
"No plans, I would probably be freaking out… all alone… thinking too much about everything."
"Great then, you can come over and tell me all about what's going on, over dinner and some wine."
"Ok, perfect then," Callie said with a smile. "Sofia, time to go!" she called.
Forty minutes later Sofia was already tucked in bed and Callie was on the sofa covering her body with a blanket, planning to relax with a movie when her phone buzzed. Callie took it and saw Arizona's name. She smiled and leaned back opening the message.
Before I start my shift I just wanted to say again how much I enjoyed your company this evening :-) I can still feel the touch of your lips on mine…, not sure if it is a good thing though, because now I can't stop thinking about them...
Callie laughed and sent a bunch of kisses in her reply.
That is not helping… - Arizona wrote back.
It's helping my plan to keep you thinking about my lips :-D I think it's only fair because I have been thinking about yours ever since the last moment my lips touched them.
Okay, this is not helping either! How am I supposed to focus on work now? - Arizona protested in her reply.
Hey at least you have a distraction, I'm supposed to go to bed and sleep…
You can dream about me… :-) -Arizona suggested.
Mmmm, yes… I will definitely dream about you… and BTW I had a wonderful time as well, can't wait to have a date with you again… - Callie typed smiling at the phone.
I am looking forward to that as well :-) I just got paged, so I have to go… I'll meet you in your dreams soon :-)
:-) Good night, and see you tomorrow as well.
Good night, *kiss* *kiss* *kiss* *kiss* *kiss* - Arizona typed with a broad smile on her face.
Who's now not helping!? – Callie protested.
I'm just making sure you dream about me ;-) gotta go… see you tomorrow *kiss*.
See you tomorrow :-) *kiss*. Callie finished and put down her phone smiling happily.
This really feels nice, dating with Arizona again, from the beginning, this not seeing each other often thing, is really adding something special into the mix and I like it, she thought and smiled pulling the blanket up and turning on the TV.
"Let's see if I can actually not think about her for 90 minutes," she said to herself and smiled.
SATURDAY
"Mommy, when is mama coming?" Sofia asked impatiently.
"She's on her way, she'll be here soon," Callie said softly, a smile covering her face. She wondered if Sofia seemed more excited than usual to see Arizona or it was her own excitement that was amplifying the impression.
Arizona texted her when she woke up and informed she would be coming soon. They exchanged a few messages and Callie mentioned she was having dinner with Meredith and admitted she felt weird to be alone but Arizona assured her it was good to have some alone time to gather her thoughts about everything that was happening. Callie realized Arizona was right so she decided to make the best of the alone time she was getting.
The sound of the doorbell interrupted her thoughts and Sofia immediately ran to the door and shouted "I will open it!"
Callie laughed and walked over to the door as well. She watched with a smile when Sofia jumped into Arizona's arms almost bringing her down.
"Hey honey, oh it's so nice to see you!" Arizona said taking Sofia into her arms and stepping inside.
"I've missed you so much mama!" Sofia said wrapping her arms around Arizona's neck.
"Awww honey I have missed you too," Arizona said while her eyes met Callie's asking for an explanation.
Callie shrugged her shoulders, "She's been really excited the whole morning."
Arizona smiled warmly caressing Sofia's hair. "And you will be even more excited when you hear that the sky is clearing up and we will have sunshine for the next two hours so we are going for a walk and for some ice-cream."
"Yay!" Sofia clapped her hands happily, "I need to go get my backpack" she said and wiggled her legs trying to get down.
Arizona laughed, "Okay, you really are super excited today," she said watching Sofia run back to her room. Callie handed her the bag with Sofia's things and Arizona managed to just briefly let her fingers linger on Callie's hand caressing it with her thumb before Sofia came running into the living room again.
"Okay, I'm ready!" she exclaimed making both Callie and Arizona laugh.
"Come here and give me a hug!" Callie said crouching down and spreading her arms.
Sofia ran into her embrace, "Mommy, when are we going to do something together again?"
Callie looked up to face Arizona and raised her eyebrows.
"Soon honey, okay, mama and I will talk about it and we will try to figure out when we can do that."
"Okay, I miss being with both of you at the same time."
Arizona caressed Sofia's back. "Aww, honey, we promise we will try to do that soon, now come on so we manage to catch some sun."
"Okay honey, be a good girl, listen to mama, and we will talk over the phone."
"Okay, mommy, I will miss you"
"Aww, sweetie I will miss you too," Callie said softly and squeezed Sofia one more time kissing her on the head.
Arizona took Sofia's hand and stopped for a few seconds, her eyes silently conversing with Callie. She wanted so badly to move closer and get lost in Callie's lips and her embrace.
Callie smiled and simply mouthed I know…
Arizona smiled back allowing her eyes to express the longing she felt.
"Bye" she said as she allowed Sofia to pull her towards the door.
Callie sighed, "Bye! Have fun!" she yelled after them.
"You have fun at the dinner," Arizona said managing to send one more glance at Callie before closing the door.
LATER THAT EVENING
"Okay, I am so ready for some wine," Callie said entering Meredith's house and handing her a bottle of wine.
Meredith laughed, "Great! Let's start then! I ordered food, you know I'm not big on cooking."
"Oh that's fine, I wasn't expecting you to cook anyway," Callie laughed. "Where is everybody? I thought Maggie and Amelia would be joining us for dinner?"
"Oh they are upstairs with the kids, they have both already eaten so they offered to put the kids to bed, they might join us later."
"Oh, okay," Callie said taking a glass Meredith handed her. "Thank you, so how are you doing?" Callie asked.
"Me? I'm fine, I want to hear all about your crazy days!" Meredith said through laughter.
Callie laughed, "Oh, God, so many things have happened. Today I was alone for a few hours and it hit me you know, everything that has happened in the last what, ten days I guess, it's been a lot…"
"Yeah, I know, so okay, tell me first about Wednesday and then I also want to hear what happened with Penny and how Arizona came back into the picture because you never explained that either."
Callie took a deep breath. "I hope I'm not making a mistake…"
"With Arizona?" Meredith asked.
"No, no, I don't mean Arizona, I am one hundred percent sure I want to be with her, I'm just wondering if jumping from one relationship to another on the same day was a good move, but then again, Arizona is not someone new, we know each other so well, and I really don't want to waste time, things happen in life, you know that as well, I just want to be on the happy wagon while it's still here, you know…"
Meredith nodded her head, "Well look, you've always been quite impulsive, and you cannot change that overnight, what's done is done, you cannot go back and pull the breaks on everything with Arizona, so there's no point thinking about whether or not you should have started it so fast. I say just forget about that and move on, I am sure you have plenty of other things to deal with in this process."
"Oh, most definitely, so many…" Callie laughed shaking her head. "Okay so let me explain about Wednesday… some things came up in my session with Dr. Brown, Arizona's therapist."
"Right, Arizona mentioned that she wanted to talk to you alone and that you were upset when you came out of her office and left without explaining to her what happened."
"Yes, I realized that some of my behavior comes from my childhood, my dad was always fixing things with my mom because he cheated on her before I was born."
"Oh wow, how long have you known about that?" Meredith asked her eyes wide from surprise.
"He told me about it two years ago, when Arizona and I split after Boswell, he came when I had that malpractice trial, and when I told him about our split and why I asked her to leave… he told me that I couldn't give up on my marriage without even trying to save it. And then he told me that he cheated."
"So that's why you asked Arizona to come back then?"
"Well yeah, he told me all about fighting for one's marriage, how you don't give up because of one mistake, how you took vows, how marriage is not always easy but if you love someone you forgive them. So he explained how he fought for my mom and how she forgave him and that they have had years and years of happy marriage ever since. But in that therapy session I remembered my mom being sad often, and my dad was doing a lot of things to make it all better. So I realized that I watched him trying to fix things over and over again and that's what I've been doing in my life as well, always trying to fix my relationships, the people I was with, I so desperately wanted to fix Arizona when she was broken after losing her leg…"
"Hmm, yeah you did have a tendency to fix things in whatever way, remember how you married George when things were not going great?"
"Exactly, things like that… and I didn't even realize I was repeating a pattern until that day in the therapist's office. And also desperately looking for love, I have been repeating that pattern with all my relationships, that's why I was jumping so fast into them, because I wanted someone to be there and show me that they loved me. So I was repeating both of my parents' behavior, it seems I learned it from them, and it hit me so hard, I wondered how come I never questioned my own actions… I have wasted years of my life repeating the same mistakes when I could have done something to change that…"
"Well it's not easy to deal with stuff when you suddenly realize they were a part of your life for a long time. And I totally understand things from childhood affecting your life. I could write a book on how my mom conditioned my adult years. You know I still have therapy sessions where I talk about my mom?"
"Oh, really, I had no idea…" Callie said surprised.
"Oh yeah, my mom gave me material for a lifetime," Meredith laughed. "I sometimes worry I am failing as a mother because a terrible mother was all I had. And I am so afraid I will affect my kids as much as she affected me."
"You are a great mother Meredith, you shouldn't worry about that, your kids are doing great," Callie assured with a smile.
"Well on bad days I tell myself You are doing a million times better than your mom ever did so that's how I help myself get through the day."
"I had no idea you had it so tough with your mom..."
"My mom never wanted a child, all she wanted was her career, and she was never around. It was always about the surgeries and about her, never about me. Did you know she slit her wrists in front of me? And I was just a child. And she did it to get Richard's attention… Can you believe how selfish she was, she put her own child through trauma just to get the attention of the man who left her."
"My God, how are you even normal?" Callie said putting her hand over her mouth.
Meredith laughed, "Years of therapy coupled with determination to not be like her."
Callie stood up, "Okay come here, I need to hug you now."
"What?" Meredith said with a surprised look on her face.
"Yeah, come on, it's Latin blood thing, I cannot continue this conversation without hugging this pain away."
Meredith laughed and stood up, "Okay, bring it on" she smiled and hugged Callie.
After a few seconds Meredith tried to let go but Callie stopped her, "No wait, try to relax."
Meredith took a breath and relaxed. After a while she spoke, "Hmm, okay I do feel lighter."
"Of course, oxytocin is working its magic!" Callie said with a smile and let go of Meredith. "I read that the hug needs to last for twenty seconds for our body to release the oxytocin."
"Hmm, I should do this more often," Meredith said.
"Hey if you can get seven seconds with each child you can get to twenty seconds easily," Callie said with a smile.
"Being still for seven seconds? I think I might get a better chance with Amelia than the kids", Meredith laughed.
Callie raised her eyebrows.
"Hm, yeah you're right, she's not the huggy type, I guess, maybe Maggie then…"
Callie chuckled and Meredith laughed at her reaction.
"Okay I need to train my sisters to start hugging," Meredith joked.
"You hugging?", Amelia laughed out loud entering the kitchen. "You're kidding right? You're worse than me with hugging."
"Okay, new rule in the house, we will do some hugging every day!" Meredith exclaimed.
Callie laughed, "I like that plan! I'm going to implement that with Arizona and Sofia."
Amelia looked at her with a surprise on her face.
"What's that about a new rule I hear?" Maggie said entering the room.
"Hugging, Meredith wants us to start hugging every day," Amelia explained grabbing a bite of food.
Maggie looked at Meredith with suspicious eyes.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing is going on, we are just going to induce the hormone of happiness, little oxytocin will do us all good."
"Hm, okay I like this, I'm in!" Maggie said.
Meredith lifted her right hand "Wow I am surprised, okay! Cool! Amelia?"
"Does that also mean you will be nicer to me?" Amelia teased.
"Oh come on, I apologized for calling you crazy the other day," Meredith protested.
Amelia laughed, "It's just so easy to play that card… okay I'm in as well! Hug away!"
"This house is fun!" Callie laughed.
"Now Callie… what was that you said about implementing the same with Arizona and Sofia? Since when are you hugging Arizona again?" Amelia asked.
"Well, that's what she was just about to explain to me too," Meredith said.
"Well, I guess we won't be able to hide it for much longer anyway…" Callie said with a bit of hesitation, she wasn't sure she wanted to share this with everybody... And if Mer is not here then they will have to look after Sofia… well both of them will be here anyway… her mind was racing trying to decide what to do.
"Yeah especially since Sofia will be spending so much time here," Meredith teased like she had read Callie's mind.
Callie laughed, "Yeah," she agreed, while Maggie and Amelia starred at both of them with a puzzled look on their faces.
Callie looked at them, "We are back together."
"Again? How many times have you broken up?'" Amelia asked with a smile on her face.
"Several times yeah…" Callie nodded taking a bite and a sip of wine.
"But they are meant to be together so it doesn't matter," Meredith pitched in.
"You really think so?" Callie asked.
"Oh come on, I already told you, she's the only one you've truly been happy with so now that you have already started it, I say just go for it! But I still want to hear how you got back together."
"Mm, because of Bailey," Callie said chewing on a bite.
"Bailey?" Meredith repeated with surprise.
"What!?" Amelia exclaimed while Maggie just looked at her in surprise.
"I asked Bailey how she knew Tuck was ready to meet Ben, because I wasn't sure about introducing Penny to Sofia, and she said it was more about if she was ready for that step. And she gave me this hypothetical scenario where I'm cheering on Sofia while the whole stadium is shouting her name after scoring the winning goal at the Women's World Cup and then she tells me: "Okay, so who do you want cheering and screaming beside you?"
"Oh wooow!", Meredith said in awe.
Callie nodded her head and smiled, "That's a good one, right?"
Amelia nodded her head, "Hmm, Bailey's got some wisdom…"
"That is a good one," Meredith said.
"Who is Tuck?'" Maggie asked.
All three of them laughed.
"Bailey's son from a previous marriage," Meredith explained.
"Oooh, right, now I get it!" Maggie smiled.
"Maggie you need to brush up on all the gossip about hospital staff," Amelia said.
Maggie waved her hand, "I never cared much about gossip anyway."
"Well this is not gossip, these are facts!" Meredith said. "Okay, so clearly you thought of Arizona when she said that."
"Yeah, it was all Arizona," Callie smiled. "So I started thinking about breaking up with Penny, and going after Arizona and taking it slowly this time, be sure of what I wanted… so I decided to take some time to process everything but I saw Arizona on a date and she was so happy and I got jealous… I panicked that I would lose her to this woman, and then Penny unexpectedly got the grant and she wanted me to move to New York with her, suddenly so many things were happening… I told her I couldn't just drag my child across the country because of her spur-of-the-moment decision. So before I could even break up with her she broke up with me because she said she didn't want to do a long distance relationship and she said it was obvious I didn't feel the same about her. That same evening Arizona stopped by to see Sofia, and Sofia was talking about us being a family again and I got carried away so I just blurted out to Arizona how we could be a family again."
"How did she take it?" Meredith asked.
"Oooh, that didn't go well," Callie laughed. "She got really mad, she thought I was doing it because I got dumped earlier that day."
"Well, to be fair…" Meredith started.
"I know, I know, that was some seriously bad timing…" Callie acknowledged.
"Wait, so this was the same day when Penny got her grant?" Amelia asked remembering that day.
"Ummm, the next day I think," Callie clarified.
"That's when I told Arizona that Penny was leaving and you would be free again and she said you had made it clear you were done with your relationship… so wait, you were already reconsidering it and she had no idea?"
"Yeah", Callie nodded.
"Wow, it's like watching a movie!", Maggie commented.
Amelia laughed, "You don't know the half of the things that went on in that hospital, even I don't know half of the things, but these two," she pointed at Meredith and Callie, "they have been there for a long time."
"Oh yeah, the stories we could tell…" Meredith laughed.
"Yeah, so many things…" Callie confirmed through laughter.
"Okay, but continue with the story," Meredith urged.
"Well, Arizona stormed out of the house, I tried to explain but she didn't even let me. She even went on a date with that woman that night."
"Oh, really?" Meredith commented with surprise.
"Yeah, but she cut the date short and came knocking on my door to talk."
"Wooow!" Maggie commented, just looking at Callie in awe, her head resting on her palms.
"What made her change her mind?" Meredith asked.
Callie laughed, "Bailey!"
"What!? Again! When did Bailey become the Cupid of the hospital?!" Amelia said.
They all laughed out loud.
"Yeah she told her some story about lemons, like how she was focused too much on the lemons she was getting in life and encouraged her to decide what she wanted and go after it."
"Lemons?" Amelia asked.
Meredith smiled, "If life gives you lemons, just make some lemonade."
"Yeah something like that, how do you know that?" Callie looked at Meredith.
"She said it to me as well…, after Derek…."
"Well, well, look at Bailey being the mama bear of the hospital," Amelia said.
"It makes sense though…" Meredith stated.
"Yeah totally!" Callie confirmed with a smile.
"Wow, so it really has been crazy time for you", Meredith laughed.
"Yep!" Callie laughed.
"So you and Arizona are together now?" Amelia asked.
"Well we are trying to go really slow, we are dating and each of us will be doing night shift for a week so that we don't get to meet at the hospital. We only get to see each other once a week for our date, possibly again if something comes up but the plan is once a week."
"Friday, when Sofia will be here", Meredith added.
"Oooh, that's why Sofia was here last night," Maggie said.
"Yeah, we are trying to protect her as much as possible in all this." Callie explained. "It's not easy but that's why we are going slowly."
"Well, I think it's great, I'm happy for you!" Amelia said with a smile.
"Hear, hear!" Maggie said lifting her glass.
Callie laughed, "Thank you!"
"See, everybody is on board, I told you," Meredith said with a big smile.
"Yeah, it's good to have our friends supporting us," Callie said smiling broadly.
On the other side of the city, Arizona and Sofia had just finished dinner and had a bit of time before Sofia had to go to bed.
"Okay honey, what do you want to do?"
"Can we watch a cartoon?" Sofia asked.
"Of course come here, let's get under a blanket," Arizona said with a smile.
Sofia happily jumped on the sofa, took the blanket and gave it to Arizona. She snuggled next to Arizona and waited for the blanket to cover them.
Arizona smiled happily wrapping her arm around Sofia. "Any wishes?" Arizona asked.
"You flip the channels and I'll tell you when to stop."
Arizona smiled, "Okay," she said and turned on the first cartoon channel.
"No."
"No."
"No."
Sofia kept on saying as Arizona changed the channels.
On the next channel a girl appeared on the screen. She was roughly the same age as Sofia. Arizona looked at Sofia who was silent. "This one?" she asked.
Sofia nodded her head. In the first scene the girl was with her mom and her siblings in the living room laughing and playing. The next scene showed the girl running outside of the house into her dad's arms and leaving with him. Then there was a scene of her with her dad, grandparents and cousins and several children, all having a barbecue in the backyard. The girl was happy, dancing and having fun.
"She is like me," Sofia said.
Arizona was taken aback. "What do you mean honey?"
"She has two homes like me," Sofia explained with a hint of sadness in her voice clearly not as happy about it as the girl in the cartoon.
Arizona's eyes welled with tears. "Don't you think it's cool to have two homes honey?"
"No," Sofia said sadly. "I would prefer one house."
She looked at Arizona.
"Mama…, mommy said it is hard to get a new house, do you think mommy would like to live in this house with us? I like this house."
Arizona placed her hand on Sofia's head and stroked her hair gently.
"I'll talk to mommy about that, okay."
Arizona was at a loss, she would have to talk to Callie, they needed to figure out how to approach this, they couldn't tell Sofia that they were dating, she didn't even understand what dating meant… and it was too soon to tell her that her moms actually wanted the same thing but that they couldn't move in together just yet, it would confuse her. When they split up, Sofia was too young to understand what was happening but now she was beginning to understand more things and she will definitely be asking more questions.
"Doesn't she miss her mom when she's in another house?" Sofia's question interrupted Arizona's thoughts.
"I think she just tries to have fun and be happy wherever she is."
"I miss mommy," Sofia said sadly.
"Oh honey, I know," Arizona said and squeezed Sofia tightly. All she wanted to do was make her daughter feel safe and happy.
"Let's do a tea party before going to bed" Arizona cheerfully suggested trying to divert Sofia's thoughts.
"I don't feel like it," Sofia said sadly and started crying, "I want mommy to come and sing me a lullaby."
"Oh, honey, mommy can't come now, how about we sing something together, the two of us?"
"I want mommy!" Sofia screamed and continued crying. Arizona tried calming her down for a few minutes, she tried a few distractions but nothing was working, Sofia kept on screaming out loud.
"Do you want me to call mommy on the phone?"
Sofia nodded her head, still crying loudly.
"Okay, let's call mommy," Arizona got up and took her phone. Normally she wouldn't do this, but normally she would find a way to calm Sofia down and this evening nothing was working.
Callie and Meredith were alone again, talking over wine when Callie's phone rang and Arizona's face appeared on her phone.
"Hey, does Sofia want to say goodnight?" Callie said with a smile opening the video call. But when she heard Sofia crying in the background she stood up from the dinner table and went into the living room. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Arizona shook her head, "She started crying a few minutes ago because you are not here."
"But she was so excited to go with you this afternoon," Callie stated with a confused look on her face.
"I know, maybe she's tired because we have walked quite a lot and it was a bit windy."
"She cried last Sunday as well when you left for night shift, she wanted you to be there."
"Well, tonight she wants you to sing her a lullaby so I'll give her the phone and you can sing to her while I go make her some tea to calm her down."
"Okay," Callie nodded.
Arizona gave Sofia the phone and Sofia stopped crying out loud but kept on sniffling,
"Mommy, why aren't you here?"
"Honey, you get to spend this week with mama, we talked about this."
"I know, but I want you both here, why can't you both be here?" Sofia said and started crying again. Arizona wrapped her arm around Sofia and placed a kiss on her cheek looking worriedly at Callie.
"I'll go make us some tea and you talk to mommy while I'm in the kitchen, okay?"
Sofia sniffled and nodded her head. She calmed down a bit waiting for Callie to start singing.
Arizona got up and went into the kitchen, she heard Callie sing and she smiled even though she was worried. Sofia had gotten used to switching between her and Callie and she never made much drama about staying with only one of them. But lately this has changed and Arizona wondered if everything that was happening between them was affecting their daughter too much.
Sofia had stopped crying and was now talking to Callie, Arizona sighed with relief and went back to the living room.
"Okay, honey, say goodnight to mommy and go wash your face because you will have salty cheeks from all the tears, and then we will have our goodnight tea party."
"I did not cry that much!" Sofia protested with a pout.
Callie laughed, "You are so cute when you are pouting."
"I am not!" Sofia protested again and gave Arizona the phone while she went into the bathroom.
Arizona looked at Callie shaking her head in disbelief and placed her palm on her cheek.
"Can we talk later about this and about something else from this evening?"
"Yeah, sure. Did something happen?" Callie asked worriedly.
"No, no, it's just something else she said before she started crying," Arizona said rubbing her forehead. "I won't go to bed until late anyway, my body is still on the night shift clock so ping me when you get home."
"Okay, sure," Callie said just when she heard Sofia's voice.
"Is the tea ready mama?"
Arizona turned her head to Sofia, "Yes, sweetheart, come say goodnight to mommy and we will have our tea party."
Sofia came closer and leaned on Arizona, she waved into the phone and said, "Good night mommy."
"Good night honey," Callie said and blew a kiss into the phone. Sofia blew a kiss as well and waved some more before they ended the call.
Callie sighed and went back into the kitchen.
"Is everything okay?" Meredith asked.
"She started crying because she wants both of us there with her. The first night when Arizona went to work the night shift she did the same, crying because she wasn't there. I thought it was because we had spent a lot of time together all three of us that weekend but now that reasoning makes no sense because we haven't had family time since last Saturday, well we did have dinner on Wednesday and Arizona was there for her bubble bath but that was three days ago it shouldn't still be affecting her."
"Well, maybe you should do another family day soon…?" Meredith suggested.
"Yeah, maybe…"
"I mean look, you two are working on being a family again, Sofia must be sensing something is going on, you know how kids are, they feel our energy, they are much more connected to the energy flow than us adults, she has picked up on the vibe between you two, and you cannot change that, so just try to include her into this process, because leaving her out might cause an even more rebellious behavior."
"Hmm, yeah we will have to do something together maybe next weekend, this weekend is too soon", Callie said pensively and took a sip of her wine.
Arizona was on the sofa reading articles about helping children deal with living in two households and how to approach everything when parents are reconciling. She couldn't find much information about reconciliation steps with children, the main advice was go slowly, and they were already doing that. Her phone buzzed so she picked it up to check, it's probably Callie, she thought.
I'm on my way home, I'll call you when I get there, Callie wrote.
Okay, can we do a video call?
Yeah, sure :-).
Great talk to you soon :-).
Arizona sighed and got up to get a glass of wine, she went to peek into Sofia's room to make sure she was sleeping and then returned back on the sofa and continued reading waiting for Callie to call.
Twenty minutes later Callie's face appeared on the screen. Arizona put her laptop on the table and leaned back on the cushions. She opened the call.
"Hey", she said with a slight smile.
"You look worried," Callie noticed.
"Yeah, I am worried Callie, I think everything is affecting her more than we think…, she just suddenly started crying and she wouldn't calm down," Arizona explained, worry spread all over her face.
"I think she is just in this period when she cries whenever she's not happy with something. The other day she started screaming and crying because I put the spoon on her plate instead of placing it on the side. She had me in shock for a few seconds because she was screaming like she was in serious pain, I was completely baffled by the situation. Meredith told me Zola cried and screamed in similar way the other day only because she poured her a glass of water when she wanted to do it herself."
"Hmm, yeah, I read a lot about the phases children go through when they are learning how to express their feelings, so that might be a part of it as well but she keeps on talking about us living in one house and I think the change between us is affecting her a lot."
"Hmm, could be…, so what happened this evening?" Callie asked.
"We were watching a cartoon, it was about a girl who was living in two households, divorced parents, and they showed her happy in her mom's house and then they showed her happy in her dad's house. Sofia said the girl was like her, living in two homes and she asked me if the girl wasn't missing her mom when she was with her dad. And then she said she missed you."
Callie smiled sadly. "She often talks about missing you as well."
"She mentioned how you said it wasn't easy to get a new house…"
"Oh, she remembers that?"
"Yeah, I think she thinks about it a lot... she again said how she doesn't like living in two places, and that she would prefer one house. She asked me if you would like to live here in the house with both of us."
"Oh," Callie uttered in surprise. "What did you say?" she asked.
"I said I would talk to you about it, I mean what can I say, I think it's too soon to tell her we want the same thing but that we can't do it yet, it will just confuse her."
Callie sighed, "Yeah, it would be confusing… well, you know what, I'm seeing Dr. Brown on Tuesday so I'll ask her for some advice."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, I just keep on thinking about everything that happened with my parents and I feel I want to talk more about it with her."
"Yeah, that's great, okay she will probably have some advice regarding Sofia."
"Meredith gave me a good advice too…"
"She did? What did she say?"
"She agrees with you that Sofia has picked up on the change in energy between us and that it is affecting her, and she suggested we include Sofia into this process we are going through, she said Sofia probably needs a family day soon."
"Yeah, she might be right…" Arizona agreed. "Next weekend?"
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."
"Okay I'll tell her about it tomorrow so she can start planning what she wants us to do."
"Oh yes that will hopefully distract her a bit and keep her mind occupied with the plan," Callie agreed with a smile. "We'll figure this out, okay?" she added.
Arizona sighed, "Yeah… it's just not easy you know… I just want her to be happy, I don't want her to be sad."
"Well just think about how happy and excited she will be when we all move in together."
Arizona smiled, "I am excited about that as well…, and I was thinking… I mean I know we have to go slow, but I also don't want to go too slow, you know, I mean we get what, less than ten years before she turns into a teenager who wants to spend her time with her friends and not her moms... I want to make the best of the time we have."
Callie smiled, "Oh so I am not the only one who is impatient!? Good to know!" Callie teased.
Arizona shook her head smiling.
"Okay, not too fast and not too slow, I totally agree," Callie said smiling broadly.
"So how was dinner?" Arizona asked.
"It was nice. Meredith was curious about why I sent her running after you the other day."
Arizona laughed out loud, "I would want an explanation as well if I were her."
"Yeah, so I told her about what came up during my session with Dr. Brown. She told me her mom's actions affected her whole adulthood. She has spent years in therapy and she still goes occasionally."
"And I always thought she was some superwoman dealing so well with losing Lexie and Derek…"
"Well I think in a way what she went through with her mom made it easier to deal with losing Lexie and Derek."
"It was that bad with her mom?"
"Oh yeah, that woman was never a good mother, compared to her we are both being amazing moms and we will do anything to make our child happy, so try to stop worrying that much, okay."
"Okay," Arizona said with a smile.
"Is she asleep?" Callie asked.
"Yeah she is, I checked before you called. I read her a story and she fell asleep pretty fast."
"Good."
"So what are you going to do tomorrow?" Arizona asked.
"Well, I think I'll take your advice and focus on myself, maybe go for a walk, get my thoughts in order, I've been thinking a lot about my mom…"
"Oh, really? Are you thinking about reaching out?"
"I don't know, maybe… I'll talk to Dr. Brown about that. I don't know if it's a good idea…"
"Well, it's been years, maybe she has started accepting things."
"I just can't believe she doesn't want to come see her granddaughter…"
"Well, maybe she will come around… have you told your dad about us?"
"No, not yet, I want to wait a bit, I'm enjoying this period with you and I do not want people talking to me about being careful and sending me all the worry signals. I think we have enough worrying on our own" Callie said through laughter.
Arizona laughed, "Definitely!"
"But Meredith asked how it all happened with us getting back together so I told her, and Maggie and Amelia were there as well."
"Oh well, they would have found out soon anyway, since Sofia will be there more often now."
"Yeah, that's what I figured as well."
"So you are enjoying the slow dating process?" Arizona asked.
"I really am," Callie said with a smile. "I'm excited about talking to you, and chatting with you, and then I get really excited when I get to see you in person..."
Arizona smiled broadly, "I feel the same, I'm glad we have decided to do it this way... and I really feel like we are on a good path."
"Yes, weirdly it feels like we are doing exactly what we are supposed to do."
"Right, no? I was thinking the same thing and I did find the sensation a bit weird," Arizona laughed.
"Yeah but somehow pleasantly weird…" Callie added.
"Oh yes, that describes it perfectly!"
Callie smiled "Maybe it's because we want the same things, I think we are finally on the same page about everything."
"Hmmm," Arizona thought for a second, "You might be right about that, all I want now is you and Sofia, I don't care about anything else."
"Yeah, that's all I want as well" Callie said with a smile. "I can't wait to have you by my side and talk to you like this every night in bed before going to sleep."
Arizona smiled, "I am looking forward to that as well…" she said and closed her eyes.
"What are you doing?" Callie asked.
"I'm kissing you goodnight…" Arizona explained.
Callie smiled happily, "Meet you in my dreams…?"
"Unless I meet you in mine…" Arizona smiled broadly and blew a kiss.
Callie smiled and blew a kiss as well, "Good night" she said.
"Good night", Arizona replied waving her fingers.
When the call ended Arizona took a deep breath and picked up her glass.
Everything will be fine, she thought and took a sip of her wine a smile radiating on her face.
A/N – Fun fact, whenever I write "her moms" Microsoft Word wants to correct it LOL, they really need to update the grammar check to the 21st century society ;-).
On a different note, I really wasn't sure if Maggie was aware that Bailey's son's name was Tuck and if Callie knew how badly Ellis Grey treated Meredith but I don't have time to go through all the past episodes to make sure this wasn't a mistake, so I am taking poetic license for the purpose of this story ;-)