CHAPTER 4 - FEELS
Arizona was sitting into the attendings' break room, finally enjoying her first cup of coffee since her shift had started over five hours ago. Barely had she drunk her second gulp though, the door opened and revealed her new brunette friend.
"Hello Amelia," she smiled happily.
"Hey," Amelia greeted her back tiredly but with a genuine smile nonetheless.
She let herself ungracefully fall onto the other end of the couch with an exhausted sigh, her eyes closing on their own accords as her body melted into the not-so-comfortable couch, her muscles finally relaxing for the first time in what felt like forever. Arizona could see bags starting to materialize under her colleague's eyes and her whole body exuded fatigue.
"You look like you could use a cup of coffee. Or twelve," the pediatric surgeon teased.
"Insomnia. I only slept like, two hours last night and three the night before so I'm a little out of it," Amelia provided without any further information, her eyes opening and she tilted her head to look at the pediatric surgeon.
Arizona could sense her pain though. The hint of sadness in her voice, the way her shoulders caved in ever so slightly, her eyes losing their usual glint for a few instant for something else entirely that the blonde couldn't quite identified yet felt oddly familiar.
"Yeah, I get those too from time to time," the blonde affirmed truthfully, hoping to help her friend feel more at ease, make her feel less alone.
"Any advice?"
Arizona didn't have any, really. The few times she suffered insomnia were because of nightmares or high anxiety and she still hadn't quite figured out how to go back to sleep easily and peacefully. She honestly doubted she ever would. She shrugged and, instead of replying, offered her warm cup to Amelia.
She accepted, eager to get some much needed caffeine into her system. She almost spit it right back out though as the taste invaded her mouth.
"God! I finally get why you're so sweet. How many sugar did you put in this?" she handed the other woman her coffee back with a grimace.
"I don't know," Arizona looked guiltily.
Amelia raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a firm, do-not-tempt-me look.
"Five?" the blonde eventually replied, wincing at her confession.
"No wonder it tastes so weird. That's enough sugar to send a diabetic straight to the morgue."
"That was… dark."
"You know what I like dark? My coffee," Amelia whined and let her head fell backwards onto the back of the couch, her eyes fluttering shut.
"Then go get one and stop complaining," Arizona chuckled.
"But I'm too tired."
"Are you always this whiny?" Arizona asked lightheartedly with an eyebrow up.
She wasn't very familiar with this side of Amelia yet and was quite entertained by the child-like behavior the other woman was displaying.
After a few moments of silence, the neurosurgeon talked, "So my nephew and niece asked to go camping this week end. Which I have absolutely zero skills in but was okay with because my brother was supposed to be coming too. But then he gets this patient with this big ass tumor right in his frontal lobe. And of course, he has to operate him on Saturday morning. So he can't come camping with us anymore and the kids are upset and refuse to cancel. Zola and Bailey are good at begging and making heart eyes. Like, very good. And who am I to say no to them? I'm supposed to be cool auntie Amelia. Except, like I said, I suck at camping. But then I had this thought."
"Now, this is getting a little scary," Arizona teased playfully.
Amelia tried to hit her without opening her eyes and ended up lightly touching her arm. "Oh, fuck off," she tried to sound offended but the giggle escaping her made it rather unsuccessful. "Anyway as I was saying, I had this thought," she looked at her friend pointedly this time before keeping on, "Arizona and her brother used to go camping all the time with their dad when they were kids. She must be good at it, right? Plus Sofia could come. You should totally invite them. So I guess what I'm asking is: are you available?" the brunette asked with a sweet smile.
"While I do have the skills, I'm afraid I hate camping," she said with an apologetic face and took another sip.
"Oh, come on. Meredith is working all week end and I promised Derek I would take care of the kids. You can't let me go to the woods by myself with three kids, you'd have to be mental," she said firmly.
The blonde chuckled and pointed out, "Yet, you told your brother you would."
"Please?" Amelia pouted, her lower lip sticking out and her deep blue eyes reminded Arizona of the night sky for a few moments.
"What do I get out of it?" Arizona asked carefully and squinted her eyes.
"A pretty awesome weekend with your new best friend, duh."
The pediatric surgeon raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her so Amelia tried a new strategy.
"Pretty please? I promise no sandwiches and the kids will have a great time?"
"Fiiiiiine," Arizona conceded with a huff.
Amelia flung herself up unexpectedly to hug Arizona. The blonde was taken aback for a few moments and almost dropped her coffee but after the initial surprise, she reciprocated the embrace. Before Amelia could stop herself, she took a deep breath in, the smell of disinfectant and faint flowers tingling her nose. She was about to bury her head further into the crook of her friend's neck when she realized what she was about to do and gently pulled away. Arizona had a beaming grin on her face that she reciprocated without thinking.
"Thanks, you're the best," the neurosurgeon kissed her cheek and slumped back onto the couch. Barely had her head touched the arm was her pager beeping loudly. She got up with a huff as she read her page but her smile re-appeared when she looked down at the blonde. "I'll pick you girls up at nine-ish on Saturday's morning?"
"Okay. Do I need to bring anything?"
"Nah. Just your pretty selves," Amelia winked playfully at her with a smirk and walked out of the room.
The neurosurgeon didn't think she had ever witnessed Zola and Bailey being in such good moods mere minutes after being woken up.
Yesterday evening, they had been impossible to put to bed, way too excited about the little trip planned the very next day. Eventually Derek, the kids and her had all ended up into the parental bed. Admittedly, the bed plus two kids had been a little tricky but they had managed to make it work. After doing about everything they could think off to calm the children's excitement down enough so they could fall asleep, Derek and Amelia followed them almost instantly from exhaustion, lights still on and children's books littering the bedroom.
Needless to say, Meredith had been quite surprised when she got home into the wee hours of the morning. She had snapped a picture of her family and once into her pajamas, she had headed straight to her daughter's bed for a good night of rest.
When Amelia's phone rang the next morning to signal them it was time to wake up, it wasn't without a grunt that the brunette opened her eyes. She rubbed her still sleepy eyes and blindly turned off the device. Looking around, she winced. The bedroom was a mess. She quickly cleaned it up and had the surprise to discover her sister-in-law sleeping into Zola's bed. She then woke Zola and Bailey up so they could get ready while she was taking care of Ellis. She figured her brother must have been dead tired because the kids were far from discreet as they made their way out of the room and Derek didn't even stir a muscle.
"Okay, so you guys go get dress while I get Ellis. We're meeting downstairs in ten so we can share a big breakfast of champions before hitting the road," she whisper-instructed to them. "Zola, be careful, mommy's sleeping in your room."
Both kids nodded, huge smile plastered onto their lips and they scattered off, their little feet hitting the floor loudly. Amelia rolled her eyes as she headed to Ellis' bedroom, so much for trying to be discreet.
"Hello baby girl," she cued.
Ellis appeared to be wide awake, entertaining herself with nonsense babbling and grabbing her feet to put them into her mouth. The neurosurgeon gently took her out of her crib and cradled her into her arms, feeling her diaper.
"Wow, you have a lot to say this morning, don't you?" she wiped the drool of her niece's face and dropped a kiss onto her forehead. "Let's get you all clean and dry, princess."
The brunette quickly changed the used diaper and got her ready for the day, pinching her pacifier to her onesie. That she did not wish to lose into the woods. She was thankful that her brother and her had gotten all of the needed stuff ready and packed yesterday. Fingerfood, tents, clothes, sleeping bags, card games, blankets, flashlights… All of it was already sitting patiently into the trunk, simply awaiting to be taken out.
"Auntie Amelia, honk!" Bailey said excitably as she came to a halt in front of Arizona's house, parking next to the blonde's car.
"Yeah, honk!" Zola exclaimed, agreeing with her brother, which was becoming unusual nowadays.
She giggled at their over excited attitudes and turned off the vehicle before turning around to look at them in the backseat.
"Sorry guys, but your sister's sleeping. I'm not crazy enough to wake her up with a scary loud noise. Why don't you guys go ahead and knock instead? We'll be right behind you."
The two children catapulted themselves out of the car at lightning speed and ran towards the wooden door eagerly. She got out, closing her door as silently as she could and took Ellis out of her car seat with delicacy. The baby didn't seem fazed by the transition, cuddling into her auntie. Amelia followed the kids at her own rhythm, walking like the adult she was even though she was as excited as the children.
When Sofia opened the door and saw her two friends onto the other side, the three of them immediately group-hugged, shrieking animatedly and Amelia cringed, eyeing her sleeping niece. Eventually and thankfully, their enthusiasm died down and they let go of each other.
"Hola Amelia!" Sofia greeted her happily and hugged the neurosurgeon's knees.
"Hello buddy," she pushed a few dark locks away from her smiling face. "Are you excited for our camping trip?"
Sofia nodded eagerly. "I hope there are lots of trees so we can play hide and seek and that we can eat grilled marshmallows."
"Are you and your mommy bringing any marshmallows?" Amelia teased her with a smile.
"Si, Mommy packed them!"
"We-we're having s'mores?" Zola asked, baffled and thrilled at the same time.
"It'd appear so, little dude," Amelia nodded to her niece.
Arizona appeared at the doorstep, happy to see everybody here and smiling. She had a small luggage in one hand and her crutches into another. Amelia frowned for a few seconds, not understanding why on earth she would have them before remembering that the other woman had a prosthetic.
"Hello everybody," Arizona said warmly.
A chorus of his and hellos was heard in reply.
"Is that all you have?" the neurosurgeon asked, pointing to the baggage.
"Yes. You did say not to bring anything so we only took some clothes and some snacks. And our duffel bags of course."
"Alright. Let's do a toilet run and then we can get this show on the road!"
"What was that?" Bailey asked concerned, his eyes looking everywhere in the car in worry.
Ellis babbled in her seat in a questioning tone, mimicking her big brother. Before the adults could reply however, Zola beat them at it.
"Just a little earthquake," Zola deadpanned with a nonchalant shrug.
"AN EARTHQUAKE!?" Bailey grew obviously more anxious, his fingers tightening around his seatbelt.
"Chill out. It was just a speed bump, honey. Nothing to be scared of," Amelia said reassuringly, her eyes searching for Bailey into the rearview mirror and watched his body relaxing. "Stop scaring him Zola," she chastised. "Apologize please."
"I'm sorry Bailey. That wasn't really nice. I love you."
Bailey's face lighted up. "I love you too, Zola."
"And I love all of you!" Sofia said, her arms opening wide to motion to everyone present in the car and Ellis jabbered cheerfully.
Both adults felt a grin appear on their faces, those kids were the definition of adorable.
"Yes, that goes for you too, little missy," the blonde cued to the baby. "We love all of you too, kiddos."
"That we do," Amelia affirmed with a determined nod. "We all-"
"Wait, shhh!" Arizona cut her off and her left hand flew to the dashboard, turning the sound level up.
From the corner of her eyes, the neurosurgeon could see the ecstatic look taking over the friend's features and the barely noticeable way her body started to dance onto her seat. The Can't stop the feeling tune filled up the car and the kids started to sing like a bunch of lunatics, soon join by both adults. The blonde grabbed a hand cream tube that was lying around on the dashboard and pretended to sing into it as if it was a microphone.
Amelia suspected it was some sort a family tradition because she could spy Sofia miming a microphone too with her hand in the rearview mirror. The five of them were singing at the top of their lungs, all off-key and carefree. The neurosurgeon felt more at peace in this very moment than she had in a while, row and unexpected happiness cursing through her veins and she couldn't fight off the enormous smile that spread onto her lips. As the song came to its end, they were all giggling and even Ellis appeared to be quite amused by their more-than-medium skills.
"Are you making fun of us, Ellis?" Arizona turned around and extended her arm to gently tickle the baby's feet. "Is that why you're giggling so much? Because we're being silly?" the baby giggled even more, trashing her legs around to avoid the blonde's devilish fingers.
"Another one!" Zola shrieked, and soon enough the three kids were all chanting.
Arizona looked at Amelia and asked conspiratorially, "Shall we pop the Disney CD in?"
"Wow."
"It's so pretty."
"Look, squirrels!" Bailey squealed as he pointed towards the left side of the car, his nose crashing against the window as he leaned in closer to see the wildlife.
The excited looks radiating of the kids' faces as Amelia was driving through the forest they were going to camp in didn't go unnoticed by the two adults.
"We're almost there. Fifteen minutes tops," Amelia announced.
"Thank God, I don't know how much longer my bladder is going to last for," Arizona confessed.
"You're worst than the kids," the neurosurgeon teased.
"Well, the kids didn't have two mugs of coffee this morning to wake them up correctly because their shift ended at midnight last night."
"Thankfully for us. They're already excited enough as it is without caffeine into their system. We would be overwhelmed."
"We definitely would," Arizona chuckled.
A few minutes later, the neurosurgeon was parking the car in the middle of nowhere, encircled by large trees and birds singing. The area was mostly grass, allowing campers to put up tents where they wanted and kids to run around without tumbling over any tree root.
"We're here."
They all jumped out of the car, grateful to finally be able to stretch like they wanted after almost two hours of driving without a single pause. Arizona went to the back of the car to grab Ellis.
"Okay, kids. You're allowed to run around and explore the perimeter as long as you stay into Arizona's and I's line of sight. That means no going into the actual forest for now. We have all the time for that later. And when we call you out, it means we expect you to come back to us. Is that understood?"
All three kids nodded eagerly, bouncing onto the balls of their feet with anticipation, their eyes wide opened and taking in the forest surrounding them with curiosity.
"Alright then. Go on, play," Arizona said with a sweet smile.
They didn't need to be told twice and quickly scattered, shrieking loudly.
"How about we set up a play mat for Ellis first, then we can start putting up the tents and if we're not done by lunch, we can always finish after. We can worry about the rest this afternoon."
"Sounds like a plan," the neurosurgeon agreed. "We packed three tents but I'm pretty sure the kids will want to bunk up. So it leaves two tents for just the three of us. I thought we could only put two up. One for the kids and one for us and Ellis. Less work and simpler."
"Is there any particular reason you want to share your tent with me, Dr Sheperd? Do you have something to tell me I don't know yet?" Arizona teased with a smirk.
"Fuck off Robbins," Amelia replied with a chuckle and swatted her friend's arm playfully.
They were in the middle of the second tent when they heard some ruckus coming from the kids. They stopped dead on their tracks and turned around only to see them yelling at each other not so far away from them.
"IT'S CHEATING!" Zola accused vehemently her brother, stumping her foot angrily to the ground.
"NO IT'S NOT!" Bailey replied just as forcefully.
"YOU ALWAYS CHEAT BAILEY!"
"I DIDN'T CHEAT! YOU SET THE RULES AFTERWARD BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE."
"I better go and check what's up before it escalates any further," Amelia said and scurried off. "Hey, what's happening?" she asked rather calmly as she knelt next to the kids.
"We-we we-were playing t-tag-"
"It's okay. Calm damn sweetheart. Take your time," her tone was reassuring and she offered her niece a comforting smile to encourage her to chill.
The African American took a deep breath, "We were playing tag and we said no tag back but Bailey touched me back anyway."
"That's not true! She said no tag back afterwards I touched her because she didn't want to be tag."
"No, we didn't Bailey," Sofia said shyly, her voice low. Amelia could tell she was feeling bad about calling out the little boy on his lies, even though it was the right thing to do. She played with her fingers nervously and her eyes finally looked up from the ground to look at Amelia. "We all agreed before we started playing. No tag back and the safe house is between the three trees over there."
The neurosurgeon took her hands in hers and gently caressed the back of it supportively. "Thank you a lot for explaining Sofia," she then turned towards her nephew. "Bailey, do you have anything to say?"
"I didn't even want to play stupid tag, Auntie Amelia."
"Why did you agree to play then?" Zola asked, not angry anymore but puzzled by her brother.
"I said okay because I wanted to play with you," he admitted somehow timidly and visibly saddened.
Amelia felt her heart break slightly into her chest. From what her sister-in-law had told her, Zola and Bailey had always gone along well when they were little. But since Zola had started school, her behavior had changed. She was playing less with him, saying he was too much of a baby for her now. Her brother was obviously having a difficult time adjusting to this new development. He didn't really understand and he just wished they could play more together, like they used to before. Amelia could now see how much it affected the little boy and just wanted to hug him until he was alright.
"Oh. Well, we can always play another game if you want," Zola suggested with a shrug and the adult beamed at the proposition.
"Yeah, we don't mind," Sofia said confidently with a nod.
"Alright then," she kissed her nephew's forehead. "But I don't want to hear another lie today, okay dude? Or else, you're going to have some time out. If you disagree, you can speak up, nobody's going to blame you for expressing your feelings. Ever."
He smiled at the three girls around him, smiling toothily. "Okay. Thanks."
"You're welcome. We good, kids?"
They all nodded and Amelia finally got up, her knees popping loudly as she stood up. They settled on a new game within a few instant and ran away giggling, the small fight already behind them.
"Everything's alright?" Arizona asked with an eyebrow raised, slightly worried as the brunette came back to help her finish.
"Yeah, nothing serious. They're already back to playing."
The pediatric surgeon let out a small sigh of relief, "Well, let's get back to work Sheperd. Those tents aren't going to put themselves up."
"Unfortunately for us," she chuckled with a roll of eyes and grabbed a handful of tent pegs.
It turned out Arizona was impressively talented at putting tents together and both of them were up by lunch time. The brunette couldn't help but wonder how many times Arizona had done this with her brother and why she eventually ended up hating camping so much. However, asking felt like intruding her privacy so she didn't, instead hoping they would grow closer and perhaps get to the point where they would share these kinds of things with each other.
They ate cold pizzas and yogurts for lunch in an improvised dining room. It basically consisted of logs in lieu of chairs and a bigger log in the middle to set the Tupperwares on. Both surgeons had taken Ellis' car seat out of the car so she would be more comfortable and in a correct sit up position to devour her baby food jar. It was simple but nobody minded it, especially not the kids since there wasn't any table to set or tablecloth to be careful to not stain.
Bailey and his little sister were both napping so Amelia, Sofia and Zola decided to do some exploring while Arizona stayed with them and installed some stuffs for tonight like their duffel bags, pillows and flashlights. She was shooting a text to April when the boy woke up. His hair was sticking at weird angle and he looked around skeptically, disoriented and not recognizing anything so he clenched his stuffie tighter.
"Hey buddy," the pediatric surgeon dropped her phone and opened her arms.
Bailey wasted no time to bury his drowsy body into her maternal hug and she dropped a kiss onto his forehead.
"Slept okay?"
He nodded, resting his head onto her shoulders and effectively sitting on her laps. "Where are the others?"
"Ellis is still napping and the others went into the forest to poke around. You want to go with them?"
"No. Wanna stay here with you," he shook his head decisively. "Quiet."
She kept on caressing his back tenderly, letting him wake up slowly to his own rhythm. They weren't in any rush after all. After a while, Arizona could tell he was fully woken up, his little hand wasn't gripping his cuddle toy as tight and he had ceased to yawn.
"What do you want to do sweetheart?"
He got out of his hiding place into Arizona's neck to look up at her. "Book?" he asked in a hopeful tone.
Arizona focused, trying to remember where Amelia had put the children's books. They searched through the kids' baggage and found them safely tucked under pajamas. They settled comfortably against a few logs, the little boy settled into the blonde's arms and he listened intensely what she was reading, his dark chocolate eyes analyzing the colorful drawings adorning each page.
Their second book finished, Ellis had woken up as well so they decided to play with her on her play mat. Bailey was trying to help her built a small tower with her big plastic cubes when the three others girls came back. Zola and Sofia could be heard giggling as they kept on looking onto the ground and Amelia was holding a plastic bag with God only knew what into her hand. The neurosurgeon took a sit next to the blonde and smiled warmly at them. Bailey and Ellis paid them no mind, too busy by their four cubes-high tower.
"What's in the bag?" Arizona asked as she motioned to the said bag with her chin.
"Leaves."
"Leaves?"
"Amelia and us are going to do an herbarium Mommy!" Sofia said, clearly excited by the idea and Zola nodded along.
Arizona raised an eyebrow, happy to see them do something together but gave Amelia an inquisitive look.
"What? I loved doing that stuff when I was around their age," Amelia shrugged.
The pediatric surgeon chuckled as she pictured a little Amelia Sheperd chasing leaves around and sticking them into a book, labeling them with meticulousness.
"Don't make fun of me! It's a great educational and fun activity!" she said defensively.
"I'm not mocking you, I swear! It's just… you guys are cute."
"Like there was ever any doubt about that," she said confidently with a smirk and Arizona rolled her eyes, more amused than actually annoyed though.
The rest of their afternoon was filled with games. Hide and seek, uno, piggy back ride races… whatever made the kids smile and giggle, they did. However, it had left them tired so they had an early dinner. Arizona had made a small, really small fire to keep them warm and also provide some light as they ate a potato salad. Amelia had rarely heard the kids speak so little, eating hungrily their dinner without any complaints instead of chatting. They let the kids change into their pajamas and warm coats as Arizona fed the last of her baby food jar to Ellis.
Seeing that the baby was already half asleep, her auntie decided to go ahead and put her down to sleep into Arizona's and hers shared tent. She quickly changed her diaper and arranged the pillows to ensure her safety and comfort before getting out, letting the zip open so they could keep an eye on her.
As she joined the little group back, everyone was lying down and looking up at the sky, far enough of the fire to be safe but not too far to still take advantage of the heat. They had also taken out some pillows and blankets and Sofia was hugging her mommy.
"What are we doing?" Amelia asked as she laid down next to her nephew.
"We're trying to spot constellations," Arizona replied.
"Which one did you find so far?"
"I found ursa minor," Zola pointed at the sky with her index. "Polaris is here and then you go to form a saucepan like this."
"That's very good Zola," Arizona said optimistically at Zola's knowledge.
"Daddy taught Bailey and me how to find it not too long ago. He said Polaris is the only star that shines every night and that it doesn't move."
"It is. That's why sea adventurers use it. It helps them know where they are into the ocean," Amelia provided.
"If you look closely, you can see Cassiopeia over there," the pediatric surgeon pointed to a bunch of stars. "See that weird W shape? That's it. Do you remember the story behind that one, Sof?"
The Latina shook her head against her mother's chest.
"Cassiopeia was the wife of the king Cepheus. She was beautiful but she was also arrogant. It means she was bigheaded and overconfident. She claimed that her daughter's, Andromeda, and hers beauty were superior to every sea Nymphs. Poseidon, the God of Sea, took it as an offence. He chose to ban her to the sky as a punishment, where everyone could gawk at her."
"Can you tell us another story Arizona? Please?" Zola asked as her and her brother each cuddled into their auntie's arms.
"Can you tell Orion's mommy? Me gusta this one."
Amelia could easily deduce that it was something they often did since Sofia had apparently heard a lot of different stories and even had time to settle on which one was her favorite. She could clearly see the appeal. She would gladly spend all night long listening to Arizona narrating her mythology stories and showing her constellations if she could.
"What's O-onion?" Bailey asked with a frown.
"Orion, honey," Amelia corrected him.
The brunette's hands rubbed the kids' backs soothingly as Arizona spoke.
"Orion was the son of Poseidon, the God of the sea I told you guys about. He was a gifted hunter and he often hunted with Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. One night, Apollo, her brother, saw something far away coming out of the water. Thinking it was a monster, he fearfully asked Artemis to kill it before it destroyed their land. So Artemis took her bow and an arrow out, aimed for the strange shadow in the darkness of the night and shot. Unfortunately, Apollo had been wrong. As they got closer, they discovered it was not a monster but merely Orion. They had arrived too late sadly, and he was already dead. Artemis was so sad for him she pleaded the God of medicine to resurrect him, to bring him back to life but alas, he couldn't. She missed him so much, she decided to honor him by putting him up into the sky. Orion's constellation shines almost every night, it isn't that hard to find but it looks a little weird. Isn't that right Sofia?" she looked down and saw that her daughter had fallen asleep.
Her heart swelled up at her peacefully adorable face.
"I think we lost the kids," the other woman murmured to her.
The blonde turned her head to look at Zola and Bailey, and sure enough, they were sleeping as soundly as Sofia.
"Am I that boring?" Arizona asked lightheartedly and the brunette chuckled.
"I didn't know you were such a nerd," Amelia looked at her.
Arizona almost got lost in her eyes for a few moments. The usually misty blue orbs were black enough to make the starry night sky reflect into them, the only hint of blue apparent was where the light of the fire was hitting them. Realizing she was probably staring, Arizona advertised her eyes back up to the sky, a light blush coming up her cheeks. She silently hoped that the other woman wasn't able to see it.
"Timothy and I used to live near an astronomic station with an observatory when we lived in South Dakota. It had this huge panoramic screen up the ceiling and those awfully comfortable seats. You know, the ones where you're not totally laid down but almost so you can see the screen above you perfectly? We went more times than I can count," she looked back at Amelia, a nostalgic yet happy smile on her face. "Tim had this huge crush on the cashier and he would blush like crazy every time she would hand him the change. I used to tease him all the time about it."
The neurosurgeon had an empathic look onto her features and the blonde felt an unexpected warm hand taking her own, squeezing it caringly. Arizona squeezed it back, thankful for the gesture.
"Come on, let's get the kids to bed. It's starting to get cold and I don't think getting them all sick would improve my relationship with my sister-in-law."
"Do you want to zip our sleeping bags together? This way, we can put Ellis in the middle more securely. Maybe get a couple more pillows from the car just to be sure?"
"Smooth Robbins," Amelia teased with a smug grin. "Sure, let's zip our bags together. For Ellis."
"Asshole," Arizona threw a pillow at her as she chuckled.
The blonde gently took the sleeping baby against her while the neurosurgeon zipped their bags. She threw all the pillows they had so that they wouldn't be uncomfortable and that Ellis would be surrounded by nothing but softness instead of the harsh ground if she rolled over in her sleep. Arizona gently laid the little girl back down and both adults changed into their pajamas, not without some difficulties now that they had stopped the fire and had no light except for their flashlights.
"What time should we leave at tomorrow?" Arizona whispered and set her prosthetic next to her.
"I figured if we get up not too late, we could do brunch at Wendy's. We passed a few on our way here, I think the closest one is about one hour away," Amelia's hand rubbed her niece's belly absentmindedly.
"That's more than okay with me. How about I set the-" the blonde stopped mid-sentence as something evil hit her nose.
"Do you smell that?" Amelia scrunched up her nose.
"I definitely can," Arizona's hand went straight to pinch her nostrils.
The other woman smelled around and rapidly identified the source. "Fuck. We have a code brown, Ellis toasted her diaper."
"Take this," she gave her another flashlight and grabbed Ellis' bag to get the necessities out. "Let me find you a fresh one. I'm also going to open the zip and take a risk on mosquitoes because we won't be able to survive if we don't open and let some oxygen in."
"Please do," Amelia almost pleaded.
Once they could finally breathe, Arizona gave the other woman the baby wipes. She received a weird look.
"No, you do it."
"What? No you do it."
"No, I changed the last one."
"I changed Sofia's for a year and half. I already had my fair share."
"Rock-paper-scissors?"
Arizona contemplated her answer for a moment. If she won, Amelia would stop her nonsense and if Amelia won, well… what was one more diaper anyway?
"Okay. On three."
Both women placed a fist into the palm of their other hand and counted down. "One, two, three." Amelia's paper had to admit defeat to Arizona's scissors and she whined, disgruntled, which made the blonde giggle.
"Should have known the lesbian was going to play scissors," the neurosurgeon kidded.
Arizona faked to be appalled, a hand flew to her chest and her mouth opened into a perfect O-shape. "I was going to offer to assist you but you absolutely don't deserve it."
"You were? Please, help me? I'm pretty sure I'm just going to put it backwards with this darkness. Plus, I need my two hands so I can't hold the flashlight at the same time."
"Do you take it back?"
"Totally, I've never been more sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I offer my sincerest and deepest apologies."
"Okay, okay. I wasn't asking for that much," Arizona giggled. "Come on, let's clean this baby up."
A diaper in the right way and a long gibberish monologue from Ellis later, Amelia closed the zip of their tent back up and they were all set to go back to sleep.
"You a stinky little baby," Amelia cued lovingly and faked to eat Ellis' little grabby fingers which were trying to play with her hair and Ellis shrieked happily.
The other woman had been silent for a while so the brunette looked up to see if she was sleeping. Instead, she found the blonde was staring at them with a soft expression on her face.
"Baby nostalgia?"
"A little, yeah. Makes me remember when Sofia was still my little baby. I can't believe she's six now. I look at her and I wonder where all that time passed. Kids grow up so fast."
"I still can remember the day Derek and Meredith told me they were going to adopt Zola. They facetimed me and she kept trying to eat Der's phone," she chuckled. "She ended up tiring herself out and fell asleep right in Mer's arms. She was the cutest thing. Now she handles Derek's phone almost better than him and she has more energy than a whole pack of AA batteries."
Arizona smiled knowingly. "Don't I know it. I love that they're so passionate and excited about discovering new things at this age but I'm pretty sure Sofia's going to end up being a marathoner if she keeps running every time something catches her eyes."
"At least you don't have to endure the smelly diapers anymore."
"Amen to that," Arizona chuckled.
"READY, SET, GO!" Zola exclaimed loudly and they all started to run towards their assigned tent.
Amelia and Zola ran left while Arizona and Bailey ran right. Meanwhile, Sofia was making flower crowns with Ellis sitting next to her, explaining out loud what she was doing as she picked yet another tiny daisy up. She had already helped packed most of the baggage so she had absolutely no interest in participating to whatever silly things the others were doing.
Arizona and Amelia had had the bright idea to make a bet. Whoever would be the slowest to finish cleaning up their tents would have to pay for breakfast at Wendy's. Arizona had been septic when the brunette had suggested the idea. The blonde had done this hundreds of times when she was younger and, while she had no doubt about her friend's skills, she knew Amelia was less trained than her. Yet the way she had smirked had told her Amelia had a trick up her sleeve and Arizona was too curious to refuse. Plus, it turned out to be a good way to involve the kids into helping out so that was a nice bonus.
"Come on, Zola you get the tent pegs in the back and I get the ones in the front!"
Next to the other tent, Arizona snatched a clean tent peg out from the small stack of spare ones and sat behind Bailey. "Have you ever taken a peg out before, sweetheart?"
Bailey shook his head, an eager smile gracing his lips. "No. The only time I went camping, Daddy did it."
"Okay, I'm going to show you an easy way. All you need a spare peg," she held the metal piece up in front of him. "What we want to do is slide this curled up part under," she pointed to a peg into the ground. "this one. Think you can do it?"
He took the small metal bar and easily wiggled it to get it under the one planted firmly into the dirt. "Now what?" he asked to the blonde.
"Now you pull onto the long metal bar. Carefully though," she quickly added.
Bailey did what he was told and when the peg came out easily, his whole face lighted up. "I did it!"
"Sure you did buddy, congrats!" she pressed a kiss onto his forehead. "Think you handle the other ones while I take care of the framework?"
The little boy nodded, happy to be helpful and to have learned a new trick. She glanced at the other tent and held back a laugh as she saw Amelia and Zola having trouble removing the last peg, getting their hands really dirty and grimacing. Thank God they had baby wipes. While Bailey got the last peg, Arizona was putting the last piece of framework away so they were only left with the actual tent tissue to fold.
"STOP! WE'RE DONE!"
"WE WON!"
Arizona was surprised to hear them yell and was almost fearful to turn around to assess the damage. Zola and Amelia had indeed packed the thing up, just not the way the pediatric surgeon had expected them to.
"The rule was to be first," Amelia said pointedly. "We shook on packing a tent, not correctly packing a tent."
Arizona raised an eyebrow doubtfully and pointed to Amelia's mess. "If you hold that up, everything's going to fall. The point of packing is so you can transport things from one point to another without losing anything."
"Oh, okay," Amelia conceded and then took Zola's and hers hard work to the trunk, not a single piece falling out. She made her way back to them, high-fived her niece and then grinned smugly. "You were saying?"
"That's still cheating!"
"No, it's not. It's being clever in order to win."
"See now Bailey and Zola, Auntie Amelia is being a smart-ass."