Arizona woke to a griping pain across her stomach, nerves she thought, carefully sitting up and putting her leg on before a bout of nausea hit her. She made it to the toilet in time to vomit, mostly bile as she hadn't eaten. She hadn't properly in months, why there was nobody to cook for, but she'd eaten even less in the last few days, too stressed to feel hungry. Sitting awkwardly by the toilet she groaned, she wasn't getting sick, she couldn't get sick now it wasn't a good time.
Sofia was coming today flying in to SeaTac in just under 4 hours. Her beautiful daughter was going to come home, she needed to see her daughter so badly, she missed her so much, more than the air in her lungs, more than life itself. Since losing custody of her daughter she hadn't felt whole, it was worse than losing her leg. She'd been broken and now for a fleeting time she'd be whole.
Standing up and washing her mouth out Arizona hit the paracetamol. It was most likely a stomach bug, recently she'd had so many surgeries she'd been eating nothing but hospital food, yesterday she had chanced the meat surprise, this must be the surprise. Or perhaps it was the fact she'd had 5 days' notice if her daughter's visit and had to perform an amazing amount of shift swaps to actually get the time off to spend with her.
Deciding to loosen her abdominal muscles Arizona jumped in the shower afterwards feeling better as the paracetamol began working and the pain eased.
Still breakfast wasn't at all appealing, even the thought made her feel nauseous. Instead, she tidied the house for the hundredth time, Sofia was here for 4 days, as Callie attended a conference in Las Angles dropping Sofia off on the way. Sofia would miss 2 days of school, but the teacher had been accommodating, probably because their little girl was top of the class and there was even a discussion going on about skipping grades. Not a surprise when all of her parents were top of their fields.
Getting dressed Arizona drove to the airport, Callie would drop her off, it was the first time seeing her ex-wife in over 4 months, not since she had waved goodbye to Sofia before she flew to New York. Callie had won custody, the judge favouring the biological parent, since then Arizona's visits, phone calls everything had been restricted by Callie and Penny. And it had really been restricted, phone calls limited to once a week, video calls even less, and this was the first time she had seen Sofia since she had left.
Their flight landed, Arizona stood by the arrivals gate, complete with balloon and sparkly sign pink writing, gold stars and purple love hearts, Sofia would love it.
"Mommy" it wasn't long before she saw her daughter running towards her, bending down she lifted her up glad the balloons were tied to her wrist before swinging her around hugging her tightly.
"Sof" Arizona cried tears running down her cheek as she took in every part of her daughter, the softness of her hair, how it smelt, how her daughter warmed her heart.
"Mommy I missed you so much" Sofia mumbled into her shoulder,
"I missed you too, more than you could know" Arizona replied feeling for the first time in months like she was whole. A cough nearby brought Arizona back to the situation. Callie stood awkwardly with Sofia's bags.
"Sorry but my flight leaves in an hour. I'll see you Tuesday, at departures 1800" she ordered with an awkward smile,
"Ok" Arizona gave a half smile, her ex-wife looked amazing, her hair was long flowing just before her shoulders, she was wearing a red top, Arizona loved Callie in red, with a black pencil skirt and heels that set her legs off.
"Bye Sofia" Callie leant in, so close Arizona could smell her unique comforting scent, Callie gave Sofia a kissed on the cheek before leaving waving goodbye.
Arizona stood watching her ex-wife walk away, feeling a pang of loss.
"Mommy, can we have ice cream?" Sofia asked bringing Arizona back down to earth, lowering Sofia to the floor ignoring the pain that was back again in the centre of her stomach Arizona smiled.
"Of course, and movies and pizza and the zoo." She promised, "In fact we are going to pick up Zola, Bailey and Ellis now and go to the zoo"
"Yay" Sofia cheered, "I want to see the monkeys, and the lions"
The trip to Meredith's was punctuated by Sofia listing animals she wanted to see, starting with monkeys ending with unicorns. Arizona was on cloud nine, it was like her life had colour again.
"Zola" Sofia was out the car the moment Arizona told her it was safe to open the door.
"Sofia" the girls hugged tightly,
"Are you sure you know what you got yourself into" Meredith smirked from the doorway, 4 children, lots of sugar at the zoo. Arizona nodded, just looking at the smile on her daughter's face meant it was all worth it. "Okay have them back by 6" Meredith ordered laughing as she passed Arizona her car keys, it was easier to add Sofia's car seat to Meredith's car than it was to swap the other 3, in return Arizona handed Meredith her own keys. "Good luck, love you babies" Meredith called from the door.
Arizona drove the short distance to the zoo. Once there all 4 kids bounced out of the car, even little Ellis refused to get in the pushchair hyped up on the energy of her siblings. Inside the zoo they dashed from lions to tigers, to bears. They had their faces painted and ate lunch before running their energy out at the playground while Ellis napped in her buggy. Arizona skipped lunch again feeling nauseous, with griping pain all over her stomach, leaving the kids briefly at the table she ran again to the bathroom bringing up the small amount of water that she'd drank.
Taking more paracetamol with sips of water Arizona geared herself up to a busy afternoon, she didn't have time to be sick. Sofia was only here for 3 more days. The afternoon continued the run around the zoo, the kids focusing on seeing their favourite animals again. At the gift shop each child picked a soft toy, Arizona unable to refuse her daughter anything nor her friends. Sofia chose a tiger, Zola a kangaroo, Bailey a camel and for Ellis they chose a teddy bear, on Sofia's insistence Arizona ended up with a penguin as it was unfair for Mommy to miss out on the soft toy love.
Loading them back into the car Arizona drove back to Meredith's 4 hyped up children full of sugar in the back. With the kids unloaded Arizona followed them up to the house Zola and Bailey both pressing the doorbell multiple times.
"I wonder who could be at the door" they heard Meredith say as if anyone else, but her children would press the doorbell 23 times in less than a minute.
"Mom it's us" Bailey shouted through the door. Meredith swung the door open, Bailey thrust the snake at her hissing as Zola jumped in like a kangaroo and Sopha roared. Meredith pretended to jump in alarm but the laughing as she did so, ruining the effect. Especially as both girls had pink sparkly unicorns painted on their faces and Bailey had gone for a green snakeskin, Ellis had a purple butterfly.
"Wow, that was scary!" Meredith lied. "It looks like you guys had lots of fun"
"We saw lions' mom and they were really big and sleeping," Bailey started
"And we saw tigers and it jumped really high, and went swimming but it's a cat" Zola remarked
"And we had doughnuts and candyfloss" Sofia said jumping
"That's a lot of sugar" Meredith grinned through gritted teeth. Arizona shrugged, they had shared a bag on candyfloss in the morning and had a small doughnut each after lunch. Plus, she'd had 8 hours with 4 kids only one was her own, returning the full of sugar was the least she could do.
"Do you want to stay for dinner? It's safe Maggie is cooking, and she always makes extra" Meredith offered awkwardly. Since Callie had left town and after she'd testified against Arizona in the custody case, they hadn't been close.
"Please Mommy, please" Sofia begged, Arizona hesitated still not feeling hungry, but unable to refuse her daughter.
"Okay just for dinner," Arizona relented, truthfully, she wasn't hungry and really felt too tired to cook and Sofia needed to eat even if she didn't.
"Great she is just serving it up," the kids ran in heading for the kitchen "hands" Meredith called watching as the 3 older kids slid to divert to the bathroom. Arizona handed Ellis over, Meredith took her into the kitchen using the kitchen sink to wash Ellis's hands and placing her in the highchair.
"How are you?" Meredith asked as Maggie began dishing out the food, it was pasta with a tomato sauce and cheese. Salad and garlic bread were already out on the table. Meredith automatically picked carrots and cucumber and a small piece of bread ripped up in front of Ellis.
"Exhausted, I think I'd rather work 17 hours in the OR than take the kids for 8 hours to the zoo" Arizona remarked rubbing the area where her leg met the prosthetic. Both Meredith and Maggie smirked, they were both surgeons and agreed with that.
"We washed our hands" Zola yelled as she ran in Bailey and Sofia hot on her heels. All 3 stood in a line holding their hands out for inspection. Meredith checked each child's hands before they sat at the table. Maggie presenting the plates.
"Yummy" Bailey muttered his mouth full.
"Bailey, we don't talk with our mouth's full" Meredith reprimanded.
"Sorry" he muttered his cheeks flaming, at being told off in front of guests.
"Is it okay Arizona?" Maggie asked noticing their guest hadn't eaten anything or even tried to start eating.
"Sorry, I think I ate too much at the zoo" Arizona lied her nausea worsening at the smell of food and just feeling full and bloated.
"Are you sure, you look pale?" Meredith noted, Arizona gave her a smile,
"Sure, Zola tell mom about the penguins" She diverted changing the subject. "I'm just going to use the restroom" Arizona excused herself just in time to make it to the toilet to vomit. Sitting next to the toilet Arizona felt awful, she could stay here all night if her daughter wasn't downstairs, if 2 talented surgeons weren't downstairs ready to separate them if they thought she was sick. She'd be admitted in a heartbeat, Sofia would go back to Callie, and she wouldn't see her daughter again for months. She only had 3 more days there was no way she was cutting it short. Taking another 2 paracetamol Arizona washed her face, heading downstairs.
The kids kept them entertained throughout dinner, talking about the elephant that pooped and the monkey's fighting. Bailey was the last one eating too busy regaling stories of their trip to eat.
"I liked the snakes, and one snake it was green, and it was moving and it saw me and I waved and it came closer, but I wasn't scared" he continued before shovelling in the last mouthful.
"Okay Miss Sofia we better go home" Arizona ordered, checking the clock.
"Yes Mommy, can we see Zola and Bailey again before I go home por favor?" She asked politely, Arizona shrugged at Meredith, she had no real plans while Sofia was here,"We could meet you at the park tomorrow" Meredith offered. "It's not meant to rain" All 3 kids squealed, Ellis then joining in not knowing why but guessing it was exciting by her siblings' reactions.
"Sure 11am, we can take a picnic?" Arizona offered,
"Okay, Amelia will still be on nights, Maggie?" Meredith looked at her sister.
"I have plans sorry"
"Plans" Meredith raised an eyebrow. Maggie blushed confirming what Meredith thought,
"Right Sofia we need to go" Arizona ordered, "Get your shoes"
"Okay Mommy" Sofia jumped up, hugging Zola, Bailey, Meredith and Maggie and stroking Ellis's hands unable to hug her as she was in the highchair and covered in food.
"See you tomorrow" Arizona waved holding Sofia's hand and taking her own keys off the side. As she reached the door a sharper pain in her abdomen caused her to gasp.
"Mommy?" Sofia asked uncertainly, scared by her mother crying in pain.
"It's okay Sofia, I just moved wrong," Arizona reassured giving her daughters hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Are you sure?" Meredith questioned having followed them to the door to put the catch on, Arizona gave Meredith her best smile,
"Sure, see you tomorrow" before Meredith could question her anymore Arizona shut the door walking her daughter out to the car.
At home Sofia took a bath Arizona helping, by adding the bubbles and the toys before reading 3 stories to get her into bed. Not that Arizona minded she missed story time and Sofia was getting older, who knew if the next time she visited she might not want story time so for now if Sofia wanted 3 stories, she got 3 stories.
After Sofia was asleep in the double bed Arizona stood up having a bath of her own trying to relieve the increasing discomfort in her stomach. This wasn't food poisoning the vomiting had stopped leaving her with just nausea, bloating and pain. Running through her options Arizona ruled out period pains it wasn't that time, central pain, nausea, lack of appetite, it could be an ovarian cyst or torsion, but that would be more one sided similarly if it was her appendix. Arizona ignored the small voice telling her that appendix often started with central pain and then began radiating from the right. This wasn't that. It couldn't be if it was, she'd need hospital, she might need surgery but then she'd miss the next 3 days with Sofia. It was a good job that it wasn't that.
Climbing out of the bath using the handrails, and then her crutches. The warm water had eased the pain slightly, but still it was sore as was her leg. It was still early, but Arizona felt exhausted. Taking another dose of paracetamol, she went to bed cuddling into her daughter hoping she'd wake up feeling better.