CHAPTER 10 – TWO FEET OFF THE GROUND

"So I was thinking, you, me, bowling?" Arizona asked to Amelia with a charming smile as she leaned against the scan room doorframe the neurosurgeon was currently hiding in.

"Hello to you too," Amelia teased and took her eyes off the spinal cord tumor she had been staring at for the last hour.

The blonde was a welcome pause. She looked refreshed, her joyful smile was eating half her face and her hair was tied into braids, exposing her neck and jaw, much to Amelia's delight.

"Hi," Arizona replied with a sweet smile. "So, bowling?"

"Mmmh," Amelia put on a pensive look and stroked her chin between her thumb and her index, "Ridiculous looking and sweat-smelling shoes, possible foot fungus, putting my fingers into micro-bacterial hazard filled holes… Count me in," she winked at her.

"I knew you were a dirty girl," the other woman joked back.

"Ouch. I'm not sure I want to go out with you anymore."

"Maybe a little persuasion could help," the blonde finally entered the room with a smirk.

She grabbed the brunette's scrub top, gently tugging her closer until she could kiss her. She leaned in ever so slowly, hearing Amelia's breath catching in her throat as she was getting closer and closer to her target. Her mouth landed on Amelia's tender lips and Arizona heard the softest sigh escaping her. The brunette's hands came to rest on her hips, her hold delicate as her thumbs caressed the hipbones sweetly. The neurosurgeon pulled away, her eyes fluttering opened a few moments later with a content smile on her lips.

"Are you trying to bride me, Dr. Robbins?" she asked, still so close that her lips caressed Arizona's with every word she was murmuring.

"Depends," Arizona asked teasingly. "Is it working?"

"Absolutely," Amelia initiated their second kiss, pressing her lips more firmly against the other woman's.

Arizona's hands snaked around her midsection and strolled under her scrub top to find the smooth skin underneath.

"Tuesday night?" the blonde asked breathily, her fingers started to stroke her lower back.

"You're on."

"I won't be home tonight. April asked for a girls' night and I'm probably going to drink and sleep over. I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about, Zona. I have an AA meeting after my shift and then I'm supposed to be helping Owen out. We wouldn't have seen each other much anyway so enjoy your night away."

"You're helping Owen? With what?" her tone was surprised yet confused.

"Arizona, the man lives in my brother's trailer," she said pointedly with an eyebrow raised.

"I see your point," the blonde giggled. "Well, time to get back to work," she kissed her a final time before pulling away.

It turned out Arizona was pretty damn good at bowling. Like tremendously good. Fifty-four-points-ahead-of-the-neurosurgeon good.

"Okay, now you're just showing off," Amelia protested, throwing her arms up in the air in unfairness as the blonde hit her third strike in a row.

"I swear I'm not that good, that's just sheer luck," Arizona chuckled.

Amelia's childish yet adorable demeanor had been making the other woman's heart throb almost nonstop since they had set foot out of their house to head to their date. It was almost alarming this ability Amelia had over her heart rate, but Arizona was finding herself not wanting it to stop.

"Is it what you usually do to seduce your dates? You invite them here, pretend to be surprised by your good score to charm them when really, you just are that good?"

"Damn, my plan is exposed. How am I going to impress you now?" the pediatric surgeon teased playfully and walked towards the brunette, snaking her arms around her neck.

"Don't worry. You keep me on my toes by just being you," the brunette kissed her sweetly and pulled away to take her ball.

After taking much more concentration than bowling should ever require to, the brunette threw the ball and unexpectedly hit her first strike.

"Oh my God! Did you see that!? Yeah me!" both of her arms flew high into the air happily with fisted hands and a huge smile appeared on her lips.

"Congrats!" Arizona cheered and kissed her.

"Do I get a kiss at each strike?"

"I'm afraid you're not going to get a lot then," Arizona joked.

"Good thing I don't need a reason then," she kissed her again. "Come on, it's your turn to play, bowling princess," she playfully slapped the blonde's butt before separating, feeling weirdly proud at the squeal it earned her.

In the end, Arizona eventually won with a lot of points ahead, but Amelia couldn't care less about who was first and who was last. As they exited the arcade, she hesitantly grabbed Arizona's hand, feeling embarrassed to even feel shy about something so simple. To her defense, it had been a long time since she had been in a relationship and shared this kind of intimacy. The only hands she was holding lately were either Zola's, Bailey's or Sofia's. The pediatric surgeon sensed her nervousness so she intertwined their fingers together and gave her a confident squeeze.

"I know that I'm a great surgeon and that my hands are costly but I'm not exactly made of glass, Sheperd," Arizona teased her playfully, her eyes shining with warmth and care.

Amelia felt a blush creep up onto her cheeks and tried to fight off the grin that threatened to appear on her lips by biting her lower lip.

"You're cute when you do that, you know?"

"Do what?" the brunette asked, her brows furrowing.

"Biting your lip. Makes me want to kiss you," the blonde tilted her head towards the other woman and leaned in, Amelia meeting her halfway for a peck.

"Remind me to do that more often then."

"There's supposed to be this obscure documentary tonight on HBO, do you want to join me?" the blonde asked once they were back home.

"Can't get enough of me?" Amelia winked at her, but the small question made her squeal inside.

"Nope. Come here," Arizona hooked her index finger into Amelia's pants belt loop and slowly pulled her closer.

She placed a delicate kiss onto her lips but it quickly turned into more when Amelia swiped her tongue across her lower lip. A moan escaped her and the neurosurgeon made the most of it by swirling her tongue inside to meet Arizona's. She felt one the blonde's hand tangling into her hair, her short nails gently scrapping at her scalp as she tried to take the lead of the kiss. Amelia's hands strolled down the other woman's back until she reached her butt, resting her hands on it. She didn't know what it was about the blonde's ass but she just wanted to feel it in her hands.

"Is there any way this documentary can involve a good old snuggle session?" Amelia asked breathily after pulling away, her eyes still closed as she silently willed the small fire into the pit of her stomach to calm down.

"I'll do you one even better," Arizona said. "How about we change into comfy clothes and throw some ice cream into it too?"

"Damn, I love dating you," she squeezed the blonde's butt and pulled away. "Time for sweatpants it is!"

When Amelia came back out of her room, the pediatric surgeon was already sitting onto the couch dressed into her pajamas and her face free of any make up. Sitting onto the coffee table were two wine glasses along a bucket of ice cream with two spoons sticking upwards. Seeing the crutches leaned near her, Amelia guessed she had taken her prosthetic off. Arizona didn't see the point in having it on since they were just relaxing anyway and Amelia seized the opportunity to sit as close as she could to her. She grabbed the cold ice cream and snuggled back, a whisk of her perfume coming to tingle the other woman's nose.

"You smell nice," Arizona confided with a mouthful.

"You feel nice," the brunette fired back without missing a beat, a shy smile on her lips.

"Happy to know I'm a good pillow," she joked lightheartedly, ignoring the butterflies erupting in her stomach at the kind words.

"Fuck you, you know what I meant," Amelia said childishly with a pout and took a spoonful.

"You got a little ice cream on your face."

"Here?" she asked goofily as she wiped her forehead. "Is it gone?"

"Not in the slightest," Arizona chuckled but before she could do anything, the neurosurgeon wiped her cheek.

"What about now?"

"You're a dork, you know that?" she softly brushed her thumb under Amelia's lower lip, effectively removing the food, and brought it up to her lips. "Here, all cleaned up."

"Thanks," she let her head fall onto her shoulder and then confessed, "I had a really great time tonight. Even though I suck at bowling apparently."

"Me too. I haven't laughed this much in a long time," Arizona dropped a kiss onto Amelia's forehead. "Sleep with me tonight?"

"I don't sleep on the first date, Robbins," she answered teasingly.

"You know what I meant," Arizona rolled of eyes.

"I'd love to," Amelia tenderly kissed her neck and cuddled back, sighing happily.

The blonde's arms tightened around her, the neurosurgeon's hand came to soothingly rub her back and Arizona couldn't remember the last time she had felt like this, this happy and this cared for.

"Amelia? What are you doing here? I thought your shift only started this afternoon," Arizona asked surprised as the brunette in question entered her office.

A smile spread on her lips almost instantly as Amelia walked in, closing the door behind her. She lighted up the room by her mere presence. Since they had agreed to explore their growing feelings, both women seemed to bump into each other a lot more around the hospital.

The last three weeks had been filled with hidden kisses from inside supply closets, more coffee encounters than they cared to recall and a lot more shy PDAs than before. They stayed discreet, as they didn't want anyone to meddle with whatever was emerging in between them, but they were still thoughtful to arrange some time to share a few moments together, especially when their shifts meant they wouldn't see each other at home.

At home, the surgeons had decided to lean fully into the whole "go with flow" and "do what feels right" thingy as long as it wasn't Sofia's week. Not that her presence brought a whole lot of changes, they simply were careful to kiss each other on the cheeks instead of the lips, but otherwise their routine stayed pretty much the same. It came to an evidence to protect the Latina from getting too emotionally attached to Amelia, in case it didn't work out. Meanwhile, even though Amelia was still her mommy's friend and her roommate in the child's eyes, it allowed them to keep on growing closer.

They had drawn a line at their sleeping arrangements. Both had agreed that being roommates, colleagues and kind-of-dating all at once might get a bit much and thus spending the nights apart allowed them some time for themselves.

So far, everything had been going perfectly and Amelia still couldn't believe that a woman so out of her league such as Arizona was romantically interested in her, but she wasn't about to stop her that was for sure.

"It does. I'm not really here," the neurosurgeon said as she took a sit on top of her desk, right in front of the pediatric surgeon.

"What do you mean?" Arizona frowned.

"Believe it or not, I woke up extra-motivated this morning and I cooked lunch. Since it's sunny for once I thought we could do lunch at the park?"

"That sounds wonderful."

"Plus, no prying eyes out of the hospital which means we can kiss all we want without hiding," Amelia smirked and leaned in closer and closer until her lips met the pediatric surgeon's.

"That sounds even better," Arizona chuckled against her lips and kissed her once more. "Let me wrap up this paperwork and I'm all yours."

"Wow, you truly thought of everything," Arizona exclaimed as Amelia laid down a wide blanket onto the grass.

"I'm smart like that," Amelia said smugly yet playfully with a nonchalant shrug.

"Of course," Arizona played along with a wide smile.

While the neurosurgeon's confidence could sometimes make her seem arrogant, Arizona knew she wasn't. Amelia knew what she was capable of and she was self-assured, yet she knew her limits and when to reach out for help. The blonde couldn't help but find this personality trait extremely attractive.

The neurosurgeon settled the basket onto a far corner and once sat down, she offered a hand to the blonde who gladly took it and carefully sat down next to her.

"I know you don't like sandwiches so I threw a salad together," she took out some cutlery and Tupperwares out for them.

"You're the best," Arizona kissed her cheek. "How was Sofia last night?"

"She was perfect as always. We spent most of the evening playing dollies and then we played school. She even taught me some Spanish and I taught her some German."

"Huh? You speak German?" Arizona raised an eyebrow, more impressed or surprised, she didn't know yet.

"I can speak broke-ass German would be a more accurate statement," Amelia giggled. "But yeah, that's the general idea, mein Schatz."

"Mmh, German sounds sexy," she whispered against Amelia's lips and kissed her.

She could feel Amelia giggling into the kiss and pulled away with a puzzled look.

"German is the least sexy language ever. I think you must be broken," Amelia suggested playfully.

"Maybe it's just you then," she replied sweetly and stole another kiss, just because she could.

"Must be," Amelia mumbled and kissed her again, more firmly this time.

"You know, between Spanish and German, I'm going to end up having to use Google translate to communicate with my own daughter," she kidded.

"What do you think I'm using when she has trouble finding her English words and you and Callie are not around?"

Arizona giggled. "Good thing she's teaching you then."

"You better watch out Robbins, because soon I'll be at your level," she challenged teasingly.

A serious dent into their food later, they laid around in their food coma, happy to peacefully sunbath for as long as they could before having to head back to the hospital and be thrown back into surgeries and crazy cases. Amelia could feel Arizona's eyes on her so she poked one eye open to see if she was right. It turned out she was, the pediatric surgeon was looking at her, a lingering smile on her lips and she was obviously lost in her thoughts, her bright blue eyes trained onto her face. Her silky blonde hair was floating around due to the light breeze and the brunette thought she looked every bit the angel she was in this very moment. A little stalker-ish perhaps, but angelic nonetheless.

"What are you thinking so deeply about?"

The question pulled Arizona out of her trance and a mischievous look took over her features. "Penguins."

"Oh really?" Amelia laughed, an eyebrow raised.

"Yep," the blonde argued proudly, her eyes coming alive with playfulness.

"Our little Antarctic friends are giving you with an awfully dopey smile, I must say."

"What can I say? They're so adorable. They act all tough but inside, they're really just big softies. They hug all the time," Amelia felt her stomach twist happily, knowing Arizona was not talking about the birds, "They're tiny."

"I'm not tiny!" she argued.

"You're tinier than me," Arizona pointed out.

"Barely. Just an inch."

"Tomato, tomatoe," the blonde shrugged and cuddled up closer, her arm resting around Amelia's waist pulling her closer. "You're the perfect size to snuggle with and that's the most important thing."

"Nice save, Robbins," Amelia faked a septic look and dropped a kiss onto her forehead. "You look beautiful today by the way. Your eyes are even more gorgeous than usual."

Arizona chuckled. Count on Amelia to compliment her when she had passed all but two minutes putting on a decent face this morning in hope to look a little more alive and not scare the tiny humans and their parents away.

"Thanks, Amelia. That's the special thirty fifth hour shift glow."

"I'm being serious," she pouted. "You look very pretty."

"You don't look too bad either," the blonde looked up to see Amelia's face, honesty written on her features as she squeezed her hip tenderly.

Amelia tilted her head and gave her a sweet smile. "Have you seen you? I gotta try to measure up."

"Sweet talker."

"Only for you mi lady," she said with a terrible fake English accent. "Come on, it's time to head back to work."

Arizona let out a sullen sigh. "Do we have to?"

"Do you like having a salary?"

"Fine."

They quickly cleaned everything up, mindful to not leave any junk behind. Amelia insisted on carrying everything instead of splitting.

"Would you do me the pleasure of holding my hand while I escort you safely back to the hospital?" Amelia asked as she extended her hand to her roommate/friend/hopefully-soon-to-be-girlfriend.

"You're such a dork," Arizona giggled but took it nonetheless, interlacing their fingers together.

The more days passed, the more Arizona was impressed by how easy their relationship was evolving. Each day, she would learn something new about the brunette or see a new side of her that she hadn't witnessed yet, and each day, she felt her heart go a little crazier inside her chest. The more time they passed together, the more Arizona found herself not wanting to pass time away from her. She wanted to know as much as she could about the mesmerizing and complex human being that was Amelia Sheperd.

"But you like me," the neurosurgeon teased, biting her bottom lip.

"I do," she affirmed decisively, leaving no place for doubt and gave her a confident hand squeeze.

"I like you too," Amelia sported a goofy smile onto her face.

"Good," the blonde sneaked one last kiss. "Come on Dr Sheperd, let's go save some lives."

Between their pagers, their weird shifts and trying to stay discreet, Arizona felt like her and Amelia were playing seven minutes in heaven these last few days. So when the pediatric surgeon opened the attending's room, she was more than happy to find Amelia sitting in there all by herself, filling up charts.

"Oh, hello there stranger."

The neurosurgeon looked up from her file and a beaming smile appeared on her lips when her eyes fell onto the other woman. "Hey you!"

The blonde fixed herself some coffee with sugar in a mug before allowing herself to fall next to the neurosurgeon onto the couch, her head falling on the other woman's shoulder instantly and her eyes fluttering shut as she breathed in the soothing smell emanating from her. The brunette's arm fell around her shoulders when her hand came to slowly caress her hair, Arizona almost fell asleep there and then.

"You look dead tired," Amelia provided and kissed her forehead.

"I feel dead tired. I can't wait to go home and fall asleep on your boobies," the blonde mumbled dazedly.

"You're cute when you're sleepy," Amelia giggled. "Only one surgery left for you right?"

"Yeah. That is if Bridget Sleater doesn't go into labor otherwise I'll have to stay here tonight so I can operate on her newborn right away."

"Women need to stop making babies like it's going out of style. They're stealing you away from me," the neurosurgeon pouted.

"Don't worry. Ain't no baby I see here at work more important than my two babies waiting for me at home," Arizona reassured and softly kissed the pout away.

"I thought I was supposed to be the dorky one."

"That wasn't dorky, that was romantic."

"Are you saying I'm not romantic?" the brunette faked a hurt tone, looking appalled.

"No! Of course you are! But you're a dorky romantic. Which is the best kind of romantic 'cause it means you're always making me laugh and are absolutely adorable doing it," Arizona smiled widely at her.

Amelia could see her vibrant blue eyes sparkling with care and their usual cheerfulness. She felt her stomach knotting under her gaze and her teeth sank into her lower lip, trying to contain the smile that was threatening to split her face in two.

Derek was passing by daycare when something caught his eyes. He slowed down and eventually came to a stop, his eyes never leaving the scene unfolding in front of him, his eyebrows furrowed and his hands on his hips.

Sofia was bouncing onto his sister's knees, both of them actively completing a puzzle and talking animatedly. He couldn't hear what they were saying but the little Latina wouldn't stop giggling and Amelia wouldn't stop grinning. Amelia tried to put a piece in the wrong place and happily let the child correct her, beaming as she did so. When Sofia eventually put the last piece in, the neurosurgeon kissed her forehead and offered her a high five, which Sofia eagerly clapped.

Since she had moved out of his house, Derek had noticed Amelia seemed happier. She was smiley-er, more peaceful and more positive than he had seen her in a while and he was extremely happy to see his baby sister blooming. Especially those last few weeks, and he couldn't help but feel like it had something to do with Owen Hunt and the growing time the two of them had been spending together.

Arizona walked in, holding Sofia's coat and backpack up and helped her to put it on.

Derek missed the way his sister's eyes shined brighter when Sofia took their hands into her tiny ones. He missed the way Amelia's smile grew significantly brighter when Arizona kissed her cheek. He missed the loving look his sister gave the pediatric surgeon in return.

Amelia finished washing her hands and checked one last time the temperature of the oven before joining her two favorite people in the backyard. She leaned against the patio door, happy to look at the daughter-mother duo. There was something magical about seeing them interact together. To witness their mutual love into its natural state, it was absolutely captivating.

Apparently, this evening they were playing cosmonauts. They were walking weirdly and slowly, as if gravity was working differently onto whatever pretend planet they were supposed to be on, and doing fake-jump walking. Every once in a while, they stopped, pretending to have found something interesting onto the ground. The best part though, the part that made it hard for Amelia to not burst into laughter until her abs hurt, was their "astronaut outfits". Sofia and Arizona had surgical masks on, which were way far too big for Sofia, a surgical cap and some big NICU pink over-scrubs that she didn't even know they owned to begin with. She quickly snapped a picture, deciding immediately this was her new background picture.

"Commander Robbins-Sloan-Torres! I think I found some piece of a comet over here!" Arizona said as she picked up a dirt-covered little rock out of the ground.

"Don't move! I'm coming to you with my microscope thingy, Astronaut Robbins!" Sofia replied and she moved deliberately weirdly towards her mommy.

When she was closed enough, the blonde knelt. "What do you think?"

"Looks like a comet," Sofia pretended to examine the rock over with great focus, worrying her chin between her thumb and index and furrowing her eyebrows. "We should bag it and take it back to the rocket to show it to our researchers once we'll be back on la Tierra."

"Good call," Arizona played along, pretending to bag it but instead throwing the rock over her right shoulder.

"Let's explore this side of the Moon, we haven't been yet! Maybe we'll find aliens!" Sofia pointed towards the weeping willow.

"So I leave to cook dinner for twenty minutes and you guys go searching for aliens without me?" Amelia teased as she finally joined them.

They both turned around to see Amelia pouting and Sofia broke her act immediately.

"'Melia!" she ran towards the brunette who caught her. "Do you want to help mommy and me find aliens?"

"Do I have to dress like this?" Amelia said with a chuckle.

"Vale, you can't chase alien dress like that. You at least need a helmet," Sofia looked at her up and down with a serious look.

"Why?" Amelia frowned.

"To breathe oxygen so you don't die 'Melia, duh."

"Yeah, 'Melia duh," Arizona teased her and then looked down at her daughter. "We don't have more scrub cap though, sweetie. Sorry."

The little Latina's face suddenly lighted up and she put her index finger up, indicating she just had had a revelation and both adults suddenly dreaded what was about to come out of her mouth. Two minutes later, Amelia was wearing a bike helmet which had been covered in tinfoil, much to her dismay but also much to Sofia's and Arizona's great entertainment. Realistically, the neurosurgeon knew she looked utterly ridiculous but she would gladly wear that stupid get-up any day if it meant hearing her girls' giggling that much.

"I feel like I'm in the cheapest version of X-files ever made," the brunette complained playfully.

"I think you look adorable," Arizona said tenderly and kissed her cheek.

"Come on, the aliens await for us and I think a little someone is pretty exited!"