Chapter 50
Eagerness was on the women's faces as they watched Katie hold onto the bars on either side of her, totally unsupported by the people standing by watching. In the past few months since Katie started moving her legs with the special walker, she has made long strides to reach this moment. She is now standing with only the parallel bars beside her to hold onto. Her mothers stand by the door, both skipping out on work for the afternoon to be here for the occasion.
Not only has her physical movement improved, but so has her speech. Moving past babbling, Katie is now talking. Her vocabulary is made up of many words now and she is absorbing everything she hears. While she still has a long way to go, the past few months she has made more progress than her mothers ever dreamed imaginable. Seemingly out of nowhere, when Callie was starting to doubt the trial and her hope for future progress was slipping away. But here now, things look very bright.
"Calliope, look," Arizona whispers, as Katie looks down at the left leg that is one step ahead of her other foot. lifting her right leg, she slowly begins to lift it, but puts it back down, only to pick it up again. Then, ever so slowly, she begins again. The right foot is lifted up and then placed very timidly in front of the left. This continued for another few steps before the therapist stopped her.
Tears began to stream down Callie's face as she watched the therapist brag on the little girl. The women were told they could watch, but were encouraged to stay back and let the therapist be the one to interact with Katie. They weren't too happy about it, but did as requested. When the therapist told Katie that she had done enough for the day, he looked over at the women and motioned for them to come further into the room.
Moving quickly to the little girl, Arizona was a little quicker and was the first to reach down and scoop Katie up, causing giggles to fall from her mouth. "You did it! You did it all by yourself!"
"Yeah, she did," Callie says, leaning in to give her daughter a raspberry on her cheek, once again causing the little girl to laugh. "I think that is mommy's favorite sound, right there," Callie says, putting one arm around Arizona and the other on her daughter''s back. "I say this deserves a celebration, what do you guys think?"
"I would say mommy just had the best idea in the world right now," Arizona says. "You know... I have an idea. Let's go run by the store because I need to grab a few things. Then, we will head home and celebrate."
"Your momma is just too good to us," Callie says, watching her daughter reach for the blonde's long blonde hair to play with it. Her hands and fingers have almost normal movement now, thanks to the therapy team which has been working with her, along with her parents.
Callie thinks back to when they had first met and how the blond had shoulder length hair. Now, it is about halfway down her back, with wavy curls that Callie loves. She smiles watching the two loves of her life, realizing she really is lucky to have met the blonde. Putting her hand on the small of Arizona's back, she says, "Let's get going you two. We have lots of reasons to be happy today."
Now several hours later, Callie carries Katie up to her room to put her to bed, while Arizona cleans up the mess they had made in the living room. After leaving the therapy center, the family stopped by the store so Arizona could grab what they needed. Then, when they got home, she insisted they all get jammies on. They made a blanket fort, had some snacks, and watched a movie. Just being together and enjoying some normal family activities is something they will never take for granted.
"She all tucked in?" Arizona asks, as Callie walks in and helps Arizona fold the blankets they had used in their blanket fort.
"Yep. I think we wore her out," Callie says, smiling at Arizona.
Once they are done, Arizona falls onto the couch and pulls Callie down with her. "I love you," Arizona says, leaning her head onto Callie's.
"I love you too," Callie says, smiling at the blonde. "Thank you."
"For what?" Arizona asks, reaching for Callie's hand and placing a kiss on the back of it.
"For loving us. Being there for us. Just... everything. I..."
"Calliope, you don't have to thank me for loving you. My goodness, I can't help but to love you. It's actually totally out of my hands," Arizona says smiling. "I didn't have a choice... you had me wrapped around your fingers the first time you got mad at me," Arizona says, laughing. "Because let me tell you, mad Calliope is hot as hell."
Callie laughs, and shakes her head. "You know, I look back at the first time we met, and I can't help but smile. You were all kinds of mad. Like a little spitfire. I didn't think we would ever have even a morsel of a friendly relationship after that first encounter."
"I am so glad you stole my spot."
"I didn't steal it! I didn't even know it yet, but I was just trying to get closer to you by parking there."
"Well, you call however you like, but I still say you just stole it. Just like you stole my heart," Arizona says, shrugging.
"Oh my gosh. You have turned into this big, mushy, cheesy romantic," Callie says, leaning in to give Arizona a kiss. "You know, that's kind of funny, because the first couple of times we ran into each other, I would have sworn you were going to be this annoying, know-it-all, womanizer. I couldn't have been more wrong. You are just a cheesy romantic."
"Well, you like the cheesy, romantic side of me," Arizona says, pulling Callie onto her lap. "But seriously, a know-it-all and a womanizer, really?"
"You know I saw you with several women, Arizona. It wasn't hard to think that," Callie raising her eyebrows.
"Two. You saw me with two. And One wasn't even a date, so technically only one. You saw me with one woman." Rolling her eyes, Arizona shakes her head and smiles.
"Well, anyway, I do like you being a cheesy romantic now though. You also know what else I like?" Callie whispers, resting her forehead against Arizona's.
"Oh, I think I have an idea," Arizona says, smiling. "Would you like to continue this upstairs?"
"No. I think right here will do just fine. I think we need to mix it up sometimes, you know? I don't want us to get in a boring rut one of these days."
"I can't believe you would even think there is a possibility things in that department could get boring. I'm a woman of many talents, Calliope. Boring is never a word I want you to use to describe sex with me." Arizona gives Callie a sultry look that makes Callie not even begin to question her. Callie doesn't say anything else, but raises her arms and pulls her shirt over the top of her head.
"I like the way you think," Arizona says, taking in the view in front of her.
XXXXX
A few weeks later, Katie is making tremendous progress. Once she started improving and doing things on her own, she went from making baby steps in improvement, to leaps and bounds.
"How about the first weekend in June?" Callie asked, as she flipped through the bridal magazine in her hand, looking up to see Arizona's reaction to her question.
"For what?"
Laughing, Callie says, "Our wedding."
Stunned for a moment, a smile suddenly breaks out across Arizona's face. "Really?"
" Well, yeah. I mean, don't ask so surprised, Arizona. I told you I was about ready to pick a date. The first weekend in June will give us nice weather, maybe we can have an outside wedding before it gets too hot and melts the makeup right off our faces."
"Really? In June? Calliope, I'm... Wow. That's a lot sooner than I thought you would want."
'Is it too soon? Do you want to wait longer?" Callie asked, wondering if she was being too eager now and rushing.
"Oh, goodness no. I just, I guess I just figured that you would want to totally wait until Katie was able to walk without anything or anyone helping her."
"She is just about there. I know she will be good to walk down the isle. She is making such strides that I just know she will be walking on her own. I have faith, Arizona. I know she will be ready. And that's all I wanted, for us to get married and for her to be there, walking down the isle in a flower girl dress."
"If that's when you want to get married, then that's when we will get married. I would have married you months ago, Calliope," Arizona says, giving Callie a warm smile.
"Then it's settled. June it is," Callie says, beaming. "That means, we both have to get busy picking out a dress! And we have to find the perfect little dress for Katie. Oh my gosh Arizona, now that we know when, I just can't wait. It kind of makes it seem, more real? I mean, not that it wasn't real before, but now, it is just, I don't know. I'm just beyond excited."
"Me too, honey. Me too," Arizona says, beyond ecstatic that Callie finally decided to set a date. "I can't wait to walk down the isle, knowing you will become my wife at the end of it. And I absolutely can't wait for us all to be a family. I love you and Katie more than words could ever express."
"i know. I know what you mean."
"I never thought it would be possible to be this happy about settling down. I guess that's what happens when it is just meant to be," Arizona says, watching Callie smile at her."
"You know, that should have been my first clue when I married George, that something wasn't right. I mean, I guess you don't know what you don't know, but to think that I thought that was true love is really... sad. Now that I know what true love is with you, I know that totally is not what George and I had. So I can't wait to make this journey with you Arizona. For the first time in my life, I feel free. Free to be me, free to not have to live up to expectations and all that other crap that someone has for me. I love how you love me just as I am."
"I will always love you, just like you are, Calliope. You will always be enough for me. You are more than I ever dreamed possible."
"I love you," Callie says, smiling. "Now, enough with the mushy stuff," Callie says, pulling a notebook off the coffee table. "Now, we need to decide who is standing up there with each of us, who we want to invite, who we want to perform the ceremony, what colors, what...,"
Interrupting the woman who is now on a mission, Arizona smiles and says, "Whoa there, how about we not overwhelm ourselves and start with one thing at a time."
Laughing, Callie then takes a deep breath and nods. "I can't help it. I'm just so excited now. But you are right, so... one thing at a time."