Widow Robbins
Chapter 7
AN: In honor of the holiday (in US) and because I messed up the posting for chapter 6. we're posting a second chapter this week.
Once she had put the girls to bed, Arizona drank a large glass of wine, then crawled into her own bed, exhausted from the day's events. She quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
It wasn't until she heard the sound of her daughters singing that she finally stirred. The tune didn't sound like any of their usual favorite songs and she supposed that maybe it could be a theme from one of the few cartoons they watched. She smiled and pretended to still be asleep as she heard the girls moving around in her room.
"Like a virgin." sang Vivvy.
Her eyes flew open and she suddenly sat up in bed.
"Like a surgeon," Cam sang louder. "It's surgeon."
"Is not."
"Is too! Surgeon, like Mommy, and Dr. Callie and Yang."
"It is not." Seeing that her Arizona was awake, Vivvy asked her mother, "Is it virgin or surgeon?"
"Virgin," Arizona replied reflexively.
"Told you!" Vivvy jeered at her sister.
"What's a virgin, Mommy?"
"It's… I'll tell you later," she said, getting out of bed and grabbing her robe. Like in ten years, she thought. "How about we have French toast for breakfast?" she suggested, hoping that they would forget about the definition of "virgin".
"Yay!"
"I get to crack the eggs," Vivvy said, running out of the room and down the stairs.
"You did it last time," Cam said, trailing after her.
"Slow down," Arizona called out. "No running."
An hour later, after promises of a trip to the park after lunch, the three of them headed off to the grocery store. It was hard keeping them from getting bored at the store, but spending the whole day with them meant bringing them with her to the store. They were usually pretty good about staying with her and not wandering off. Thank goodness they outgrew that phase, Arizona thought as she put two gallons of milk into the cart.
"Girls, I've got an idea you might like," Arizona said as she pushed the cart toward the frozen food section.
"What, Mommy?"
"How about I get some ice cream and we have milkshakes tonight with dinner?"
She'd already promised hamburgers cooked on the grill for dinner. Milkshakes would be a refreshing addition.
"Milkshakes! Yay!"
"I love milkshakes," Cam added.
She stood in front of the freezer case, trying to decide which flavor would be acceptable for both of the girls. Cam preferred chocolate and Vivvy preferred strawberry.
The girls begin to sing and at first Arizona wasn't paying attention, then she realized what they were singing.
"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard," Vivvy sang.
"And they're like, it's better than yours," Cam sang next.
"Girls! Stop!" Arizona said harshly.
She looked around to see several shoppers giving her a disapproving look. Her cheeks turned a faint pink and she cringed in embarrassment.
"Where did you hear that song?" she asked in a low voice.
"It was a song Yang played," Vivvy explained.
"We danced it out!" Cam said, beginning to hop around like she had the night before.
"There will be no more dancing or singing in the store or there will be no trip to the park," Arizona said in her sternest 'Mommy' voice. "I don't want to hear any more songs from last night. Understood?"
Chastened, the girls quieted down immediately.
"Does this mean we don't get milkshakes?" Vivvy asked in a quiet voice after a minute or two.
"Can you both behave the rest of the time we're here?"
"Yes, Mommy," they said, nodding.
"No arguing about what flavor of milkshake?" Two blonde heads nodded again. "Then we're going to have vanilla," Arizona said, reaching into the case for a carton of ice cream. It was a good compromise. Besides, she liked vanilla milkshakes.
Satisfied that she'd gotten everything on her list, Arizona steered her cart into a checkout line and began unloading it. She suddenly stopped, finding a box of cereal hidden beneath the boxes of pasta she'd picked up.
"Girls, what's this?" she asked, holding up the box.
"Lucky Charms," Vivvy supplied, trying to be helpful.
"You know you can't have those."
"Why not? They're yummy," Vivvy said with a hopeful voice.
"Yang had them," Cam added.
"I don't care if she had them. Neither of you are Cristina Yang." With a sigh, Arizona handed the box to the cashier and asked them to return it.
Wanting a trip to the park and the milkshakes, the twins didn't pout or complain about missing out on their new favorite cereal. They knew something about their songs had upset their mommy but didn't know what or why.
# # # # # # # # # #
A few hours later, after a light lunch, the trio walked to the park just down the street from them. Arizona finally had a chance to just sit down on a bench and watch her daughters as they ran around with some of the other kids in the neighborhood in what looked like an impromptu game of tag.
Oh how she wished Jillian could see Cam and Vivvy now. They were growing so fast and their personalities were starting to truly emerge. She could easily see herself in Cam when she was the same age; bold, and unafraid of anything. Vivvy was quieter, thoughtful and careful, much like Jillian had been. Both were showing signs of independence but still very much loving, happy little girls. And to Arizona's delight, despite their bickering, they were fiercely devoted to one another, much like she and Tim had been.
Their game over, the twins came over to Arizona to get a drink. She handed each one a juice box and they sat down on either side of her, both swinging their legs.
"What do you want to do next?" Arizona asked.
"Teeter-totter."
"Swings."
Just once I wish they'd agree on something, Arizona grumbled to herself. She looked across the lot and saw the swings were occupied.
"Well, let's go to the teeter-totter first. There aren't any swings open right now."
She hoped they could manage the teeter-totter without any arguments. Cam tended to push off a little too aggressively at times, causing Vivvy to yell at her.
"Play nicely," Arizona warned.
"We will."
The girls began to sing as they went up and down. Arizona was relieved they had reverted to a children's song, The Wheels on the Bus. The song, admittedly, was an annoying earbug, but at least it wasn't one they'd learned from Cristina.
"Where did you learn that song?" Arizona asked, hoping that Callie or Cristina had redeemed themselves by teaching them that. She pulled her phone from her pocket and snapped a quick photo of the girls.
"Kara," Vivvy said.
"Yeah, she teached it to us for kindergarten."
"Taught it to you," Arizona corrected as she smiled at the photo. It felt a little odd to be at the park without Callie since she had joined them on park excursions so frequently as of late. Her fingers started the process to send the teeter totter pic to the resident but stilled quickly. Her smile dropped slightly as snippets of "Like a Virgin" rang thru her head in her twins' voices. Why was her first thought during family moments always to include her new friend? She quickly deleted Callie's name in the send to box and sent the pic to her mother captioned Missing their grandmom and grandpop. Hope you're having fun!
Vivvy was the first to spot the empty swings and jumped off her seat, sending Cam down hard with a loud bang..
"Hey!"
"Swings!" Vivvy exclaimed. Arizona looked up from her phone to see the girl running towards the swing set.
Scowling at first at being bounced, Cam quickly scrambled after her sister. "Wait for me, Vivvy!"
As Arizona chuckled softly at the antics of her children, she pocketed her phone and followed them to the swings.
"Push me, Mommy! I want to go high!" Vivvy said as she started to pump her little legs back and forth in an effort to get the swing moving.
"Hang on, hang on," Arizona replied, positioning herself behind Vivvy.
"I want to fly."
"You don't have wings," Arizona laughed as she gave Vivvy another push. "Let's just stick to swinging."
"Push me, Mommy."
"Push it real good," Cam added.
Both girls giggled.
Arizona rolled her eyes. It was clearly another snippet from one of Cristina's songs. She decided not to react for the time being. From experience, she knew the more she made a big deal out of it, the more the girls would do. She just didn't have the energy to criticize the resident's song choices right now.
Impatient to wait for her mother to push her, Cam laid on her stomach on the swing and used her feet to twist the chains around before lifting them to spin herself. She'd taught herself the trick the last time Kara had brought them to the park and she liked the dizzy way she felt.
"Cam, don't you want to swing?" Arizona asked, still gently pushing Vivvy.
"Just one more," the spunky girl said.
Cam twisted the chains one more time for one more spin. She stood up, took two steps before toppling over in laughter.
Arizona grabbed Vivvy's swing to stop her, then rushed over to Cam. "Are you okay, Cam?" She looked over her daughter's arms and legs for any abrasions.
"That was fun," Cam answered, sitting up and giggling. "My head spinned around like a top." She shook her head. "I wanna do it again!" She jumped to her feet and started to go back to the swing but was stopped by Arizona grabbing her arm.
"I wanna try! I wanna try," Vivvy said, hopping down from her swing. "Show me, Cam."
"No, I think one of you flying like a bird and the other spinning like a top is enough for one day," she said with a smile.
Thankfully, there were no more songs from Cristiina's playlist during the walk home or through the preparations for supper. The girls seemed to be more interested in "helping" her with making the hamburgers. She gave them each a lump of hamburger to form their own. Vivvy took her time and carefully pressed hers down to form as close to a perfectly shaped one she could. Cam, of course, mashed hers down, not caring about the shape.
The Robbins house had a good-sized patio with a picnic table and since it was still a warm, but windless evening, Arizona decided they could eat outdoors. After throwing the burgers on the grill, Arizona went back into the kitchen to quickly make up a batch of milkshakes. Deciding to treat the girls, she brought out a bag of chips to add to their plates.
"Okay, girls, let's get everything outside. I need to check on the burgers."
Each girl carried something out and placed it on the table while Arizona flipped the burgers one last time.
"Vivvy, Cam, would you bring out the ketchup and the buns?"
"Yes, Mommy."
"Okay."
Vivvy returned first, carefully carrying the plastic bottle of ketchup. She liked lots of ketchup on her burger, but Cam only liked cheese on hers.
Cam followed her, swinging a bag of hamburger buns and singing, "I like big buns, I cannot lie."
"It's BUTTS, not BUNS." Vivvy loudly corrected Cam.
"Is too."
"Is not."
"Girls, whatever it is, you do not need to be singing it. Understand?"
"Yes, Mommy," they said, frowning for being chastised yet again for their songs.
She plated their burgers, helping Vivvy with the ketchup as she sometimes squeezed a little too much on it.
"My cheeseburger is yummy, Mommy," Cam said as she chewed a bite. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, but don't talk with your mouth full."
Cam washed her bite down with a long sip through the straw. "Sorry, Mommy."
"Are you two excited about your party next week?"
"Party, party," Vivvy chanted, hopping up and down in her seat.
"Fight for your right to," Cam sang.
Vivvy joined in with her sister as they shouted, "Party."
Arizona rolled her eyes at what was surely yet another song learned courtesy of Cristina.
# # # # # # # # # #
After supper, they decided to play the games that they'd missed the previous day. Two games of Trouble followed by Hungry Hippos, and it was time for their bath. Normally bath time was filled with lots of splashing and merriment. However tonight the girls seemed to realize Arizona was not really in the mood for their shenanigans.
After wrapping them each in a towel, Arizona sent them to their room. "Okay, girls. Go get dressed and into bed. I'll be in in a few minutes to tuck you in."
Vivvy ran into their room first with Cam just barely behind her. "Haha I beated you!"
Cam used one arm to push her sister. "Not fair. You got a head start."
Vivvy stuck her tongue out at her twin as she pulled some clothes from her drawer. She wiggled into a pair of Disney princesses underwear and pulled a pale pink nightgown with Ariel on the front over head, all the while humming to herself.
Cam had put on a pair of black shorts and had put on a blue Stitch shirt backwards. "Mommy said we can't sing Yang's songs."
"I'm not singing it."
"Are too."
"Am not. I'm humming." Vivvy stuck her tongue out at Cam once again.
Before Cam could respond, Arizona peeked in the doorway. "Are you girls ready for bed?" She noticed Cam's shirt and crouched to fix it so the blue alien was on her belly. She smiled and bopped her daughter's nose, eliciting a giggle from the child.
"Vivvy was singing a Yang song." Cam tattled as she leaned into her mother's embrace.
"Was not. Why are you such a tattle tale?"
Arizona released a deep breath. "Come on. Into bed." She ushered them into their bunkbed, Vivvy on the lower bunk and Cam up top.
"Mommy, is Yang a bad person?" Cam asked in a whisper as though she were afraid of the answer.
"No, I don't think so, honey." She truly didn't think the resident was a terrible person, but the lack of judgement with her children was appalling.
"Then why won't you let us do any of the stuff we did with her?"
Arizona placed her forearms on the rail next to Cam and rested her chin on them. "I know the songs are catchy and upbeat and easy to dance to but they aren't songs for sweet little girls like you two." She paused for a moment to think of how to explain it better. "Okay, let me put it this way. You know how grandpop likes to watch war movies?"
Cam nodded. "But we can't watch with him cuz it'll give us nightmares."
"That's right. You're not old enough to understand what is happening in the movie and tanks and explosions are scary for little girls."
"Okay." The puzzled look on her face showed she didn't understand the connection.
"So the words to the songs you were listening to have to do with situations that little girls are too young to understand."
"But boys can sing the songs? Just girls can't?" Vivvy asked.
Arizona laughed. "Both boys and girls shouldn't be listening to those songs when they're your age."
"When can we sing those songs?" Vivvy pressed.
"When we're six?" asked Cam.
Over my dead body, Arizona thought to herself, not wanting them to inevitably grow older. "A few more years. Don't be in such a hurry to grow up." She gave each girl a kiss to their cheek and moved to the doorway. "Goodnight, girls. I love you."
"Love you, Mommy," they chorused.
Arizona turned off the overhead light, leaving the room in a faint glow from the night light in the corner. She closed the door but left it open a crack.
She poured herself a glass of wine and finished tidying the kitchen. She ran herself a bubble bath, removed her clothes and eased into the warm water. She took a sip of her wine and inhaled the lavender bubble scent deeply as she allowed her body to relax from the long weekend and her mind to wander.
Inevitably, her mind called Callie's image to the forefront, as it usually did since the pair had become close. However, her mind kept pushing Callie out of the friendzone and into the romantic interest zone. Arizona closed her eyes and focused on her mental image of Callie in a low cut green top and tight acid washed jeans. She imagined what it would be like to brush their lips against the other's, to have hands wander over the other's body.
Just as her thoughts were leading into R-rated territory, a loud scream echoed from the girls' room followed by "MOMMY!" and loud hiccuping cries. Arizona knocked over her glass of wine in her scramble to get out of the tub and to her daughter. She grabbed her robe and tied it quickly as she hurried down the hallway.
Vivvy was sitting upright on her bed crying when Arizona entered the room. "Oh honey, what's wrong?" She crossed the room to sit on the edge of the lower bunk.
"You…heart…Yang…b-b-blood!"
Cam groaned from the top bunk and leaned over the edge to look down at her sister. She mumbled a few words to her sister and they had a brief conversation in the twinspeak Arizona thought they'd outgrown. Vivvy seemed to calm down but curled up on Arizona's lap and hugged her neck tightly. "She had a bad dream that Yang was doing a sending arctic porch repair on you while you were awake."
"A what?"
"A sending arctic porch repair, like the one on the tape we watched," Cam repeated. Seeing her mother's face morph into fury, she hurriedly continued. "Yang was watching it when we got there. Dr. Callie made her turn it off."
Arizona breathed a sigh of relief that at least Callie had put an end to any more surgical tapes. She knew from experience what she needed to do to get any rest that night. "Okay girls. Let's go to my room. You guys are sleeping with me tonight." She stood, picked up Vivvy and waited for Cam to climb down from her bed with her stuffed puppy, Sir Barksalot. She prayed Cam would be content with her stuffed animals and not ask for real furbabies any time soon.
Once the girls were settled in her bed, Arizona put a DVD of classic Looney Tunes into the player and pressed play. As she crawled into the bed and settled between the two girls, she thought it would be nice to have someone to share nights like this with. For the first time since Jillian's death, the face that came to mind with that thought wasn't her late wife's. It was Callie Torres.