Chapter 42 : Barcelona Blues

Callie's POV

The day that changed everything took place six months after we moved to Barcelona. On that day, I had spent a large part of my day doing experiments in my laboratory. After finishing everything I had to do during my workday, I went shopping for our evening meal, then I picked up our children from school and daycare, and we all went home.

Arizona had texted me in the early afternoon to tell me that she had a big surgery scheduled for this afternoon and as a result, she will not be on time for dinner. Therefore, as soon as we all arrived, I asked Sofia to do her homework while I gave my little boy a bath.

Once my children were clean and fed, we played in the living room and then I put Will to bed and asked Sofia to read a book in her room. For my part, I sat on the couch in the living room to read some research that had been recently published on cartilage, while drinking an excellent and refreshing glass of wine.

Around ten o'clock, while I was falling asleep reading my magazines, I heard my wife's keys turning in the lock. This woke me up instantly and I decided to get up to greet her. As soon as I saw her, I noticed an unusual look on her face. I knew my wife perfectly well, so I knew at that moment that something serious was going on.

"Is everything all right, baby?" I asked as I hugged her because it was the right thing to do if something bad had just happened.

"No, everything is not going good." She answered to my question.

As she said that, she burst into tears in my arms.

"Talk to me, baby," I said to her in as soft a voice as possible, "tell me what's going on. I promise you that everything will be okay."

"No, it's not going to be okay." She said in an almost incomprehensible voice as she kept on crying. "Nothing is going to be okay."

"Please tell me what's going on."

"It's about my Dad." She ended up announcing to me. "He had a very bad stomachache, so bad that he couldn't move from his bed for days, so he went to the hospital. He has stomach cancer. The cancer is apparently quite advanced."

"I'm so sorry about your father." I say as I digest the news and tried to find the right words. "Do you know the stage of the disease?"

"Right now they don't really know, but according to the doctors who talked to my mom, his chance of survival is pretty slim."

"Arizona, let me remind you that your father is strong, he will fight with everything he has in his heart. Anyway, I am here, and I will always be here for you."

"I'll probably have to go back to the USA." My wife said to me as she tried to wipe away her tears. "I have to be at his side. He may be having surgery soon."

"No Arizona," I corrected her, "the four of us must be at his side."

"You need to stay here! Sofia has to go to school, William has to go to the daycare and you have to work at the research center. Besides, I can't ask my children to give up living here until my father gets better when it's a great experience for them."

"Arizona Robbins let me tell you something: we are going to go with you to your parents' house whether you want to or not. We are a family, that means we are always there for each other when one of us is not okay. You agreed to leave your job in New York for me. Now it's my turn to go where you are."

"No, I don't want the three of you to come with me. I don't want our children to go through their grandfather's illness."

"I don't want you to have to live this far away from us and far away from me. I don't want you to have to live the anguish and the waiting without being able to rely on your family."

"I don't know what to do." My wife said to me, crying a second time in my arms. "I am simply overwhelmed. I don't know what to do, I can't lose my father. He has always been there for me and I can't lose another member of my family, how am I going to do without him?"

"Sweetheart, this is why we are going back with you to the United States. I want to be close to you and I want you to be able to hold your children in your arms when you need them or when it is too hard for you."

"It's just not possible for him to die! We still have so much to talk about, we have so much to live together. He has always been my beacon in the night my whole life. I can't imagine a world where he's not there."

"I promise you that everything will be fine. Your father is a warrior, a soldier!"

At that moment, we sat on the couch and I took her in my arms. She fell asleep in my arms and I looked at her for a long time before falling asleep myself. Arizona was not the kind of woman to show her weaknesses, so I knew that when she did, I needed to have the strength she lacked.

The next morning, I woke up before she did and decided to organize everything so that we could all go home quickly. When she woke up, she joined me in the kitchen where I was having breakfast with our children.

"How did you sleep, Mom?" Sofia asked in her sweet, cute, and innocent voice before hugging her mother.

"I didn't sleep very well, sweetheart," her mother replied, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

We looked into each other's eyes and we both understood that we should not keep secrets from our children.

"Kids," I announced," we have to tell you something. "Grandpa Daniel is having health problems, so we're all going to have to go back to the States."

"What's going on?" Sofia asked.

"The only thing we know," I said, "is that it's going to be hard for him so we have to go home!"

"Are we definitely going back to the States?" Sofia continued to wonder.

"No, you'll be back in school soon," I explained to my daughter.

While I was talking to our children, I saw that Arizona was starting to have tears running down her cheek. When I saw this, I went over to my wife and hugged her. At that moment, Sofia took her little brother by the hand and our two children accompanied me to show this woman I loved so much that she was not alone. We were by her side in this difficult time.