Title: Tiny Dancer
Author: A. Windsor
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one semester of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!
Summary: They have a plan for four.
Author's Note: I haven't forgotten this series! I guess this is well and truly AU now. (The Robbins-Torres and Sloan families do not share a half-sibling.) Accordingly, do not hold the actions of canon!Mark against this world's Uncle Mark. Oh and it's been brought to my attention that it might not be canon that the Torres family is Cuban. If that's the case, this is all AU anyway, now, so go with it.
Arizona looks up from her journal article when she hears the slightest creak from the fourth stair from the bottom and sees her oldest padding across the hardwood floors on bare feet, stepping quickly since the March chill still permeates the floor. An old, too small University of Miami Hurricanes shirt stretches across his growing shoulders, and his ratty flannel pants barely make it to the tops of his ankles. Callie says he's going to be pretty tall, based on the growth plates she saw in his x-rays when he broke his collarbone last summer (falling out of a tree, just like his momma).
Asa slips wordlessly onto the couch beside her, hip pressed to hers, drawing his knees up to his chest. Arizona lifts the throw blanket she's been cuddling under to cover him, too, and slips an arm around him. He snuggles in, leaning his head against her.
"Hey," she smiles.
"Hey," he counters quietly.
"What's on your mind, my little man?"
Asa's fingers link, and his right thumb traces patterns into his left palm. It's his thinking gesture.
"Nothing."
"No me mientas," Arizona scolds lightly. [Don't lie to me.]
Asa chuckles and unlinks his fingers, one arm looping around his momma's.
"Mami's right. You say 'mientas' funny."
"Hey now. Be nice."
"Sorry, Momma." He sighs. "And I'm sorry I fought with Lena after dinner today."
Arizona fights back a laugh at his adorably reluctant contrition, not wanting to discourage such behavior.
"I know."
"I just don't like her touching my stuff. She does it on purpose!"
"Of course she does, Asa. She's a little sister. It's what she does."
"Ya se." [I know.]
"You just have to rise above it."
"Ya se, Momma."
He seems to have nothing else to say, content to just sit with her for a while, so she doesn't press him. A few minutes later, he sighs again.
"Are we still gonna do this when my brother is here?"
Her heart's gonna burst from all the sweetness, and she resists the urge to pepper his clean face with millions of kisses.
"Sit here and listen to your madre chase naked babies?" Arizona questions as the laughter of Calliope wrestling Lena from the bath into bed reaches them from above. Given the intensity of the laughing, she's now caught her and is proceeding to throw her (gently) onto the bed.
Asa nods solemnly.
"Of course, Asa. It'll be busy and crazy when the new baby comes home, but I will always make time to talk with you. You know that right? I love all those thoughts in that big brain of yours."
The eight-year-old looks thoughtful. "Okay. And I guess that my brother could sit with us sometimes, too. If he doesn't cry."
Arizona laughs. "Okay. Deal."
She waits for the next insight to come spilling out of that too-smart brain. She only has to wait three or four minutes.
"Momma?"
"Yeah, buddy?"
"Is Mami gonna be sad again? When my brother comes."
The sudden squeak and then stop on the very top stair tells her Callie heard that, so she treads carefully.
"What do you mean?"
"Like when Caroline was little. She was upset. A lot."
"Having a baby is hard work. It cries all the time and you have to change its diapers."
"Yuck. And I remember. With Cari."
Arizona takes a deep breath, trying to find the right words to explain the postpartum anxiety Callie suffered in the wake of her difficult pregnancy with Caroline to her precocious eight-year-old.
"Right, well, sometimes, when a woman has a baby like your madre did with you three, it makes her so tired that it takes her a little while longer to get back to her usual self. But she did, right?"
Asa nods.
"Well, Mami's gonna be much better this time. But we'll all be really tired 'cause babies are a lot of work. It would help if you gave tons of hugs and fought less with your sisters."
"I'll try," Asa sighs. "Time for bed?"
"Yes, indeed. Can you do me a favor first, though?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Run and get me a glass of water? I'm very thirsty."
"Okay."
"Thanks, Asa."
Asa clambers out from under the blanket and makes a mad dash to the kitchen as Callie comes down the stairs all the way. She has a basket of the kids' laundry to sort and immediately sets to doing it on the other couch, not meeting Arizona's questioning eyes. She ducks her head, and Arizona can practically sense that her eyes are wet with tears she's trying valiantly to keep in. Asa returns with her water, and Arizona brings him in for a full body hug. She puts her lips to his ear and whispers:
"You need to give your mami an extra big hug and kiss, okay?"
Asa nods firmly without question, kissing her cheek.
"'Night, Momma, love you."
"Love you, too. Asa. Sweet dreams."
Asa quickly goes to his madre's side, throwing his arms around her middle. He tilts his face up for a kiss, making a playful grossed out face when Callie drops an overdramatic kiss to his cheek.
"Basta, Mami," [Enough,] he groans, eyes twinkling. "Te quiero."
"Love you, too, Ace. Sleep well."
Asa hurries up the stairs, and Arizona gets up off the couch. She takes Callie's hand and threads their fingers together.
"Sign me up for worst mom of the year."
"Calliope, no."
With her free hand, Arizona takes one of Caroline's many Disney princess nightgowns from Callie and drops it back in the basket, pulling her away.
"Like Asa said, 'Basta, Mami.' He was just worried about you. And I promise you that Things Two and Three didn't even notice. I mean, Thing Three definitely didn't, and at that point in her life, Thing Two was much more worried about Sesame Street than anything else that was going on. Kids are very self-centered."
"You and Lena read Cat in the Hat this afternoon, didn't you?" Callie laughs. Arizona's ability to ramble has sufficiently distracted her from Asa's question.
"Over and over and over... Oh! Did you know that they sell Things One through Four t-shirts? It's perfect."
"You ordered them, didn't you?" Callie groans.
"Of course. I got Thing Four in onesie size."
"Alright, Acer! Good eye!" Mark calls, clapping loudly for his godson as the boy takes a second ball in his at-bat. He lowers his voice and directs his next comments to the blonde woman beside him. "He's getting good."
"Es que somos cubanos," Lena speaks up from the bleacher row below Mark and Arizona, where she and Grey are still nursing their post-game Gatorade in the dirty purple uniforms of their U7 baseball team.
Mark looks to Arizona for a translation.
"English, please, Leni," Arizona says gently, pulling her scarf tighter against the April chill.
"Oh, sorry, Uncle Mark. I said it's 'cause we're Cuban," Lena corrects with a shrug.
Mark fights back a laugh at hearing those words from the most WASP-y looking kid he's ever met.
"Right, of course," Mark shakes his head.
The bat cracks, and Asa gets a decent little single, sprinting to first as his supporters cheer him on. For all her grumbling about the cold, Arizona yells and claps the loudest from their bleachers on the third base line. Asa passes a happy, embarrassed smile in their direction as he self-consciously adjusts his batting helmet.
"Yay, Asa!"
The eight-year-old's greatest cheerleaders yell, just a little late. Caroline and Susie play with their Barbies next to their older siblings, and only cheer when they notice their families cheering.
Asa's teammates eventually bat him in, and they all yell appropriately as he touches home. They can relax, though, as he heads back to the bench.
"Only a few weeks left, huh?" Mark broaches the topic always at the edge of their awareness. Arizona is easy to talk to about it, but getting Callie to do so has been like pulling teeth.
"Yep! We just finished up the nursery yesterday."
"How's Marisol feeling?"
"Good, when we talked to her on Monday."
"And how's Cal feeling?"
"Ah, yes. The eternal question," Arizona sighs, rubbing her temples.
"Yeah. I haven't been able to get her to open up at all."
"I think she's having a hard time believing it's all real. She's used to being more attuned to what's going on. As much as she teases me for being a control freak..."
"You are," he interjects, grinning when she gives him a glare.
"Anyway, I think she doesn't like feeling out of control of this. Especially since she's just getting some of her anxiety under control. She's worried she won't feel the same way about him."
"Which is ridiculous. She's Cal! She'll love him with everything she has. It's the only way she knows how."
"That's what I said, but she probably won't believe it until she sees him. Oh! Did you see the latest ultrasound?"
Mark chuckles at Arizona's enthusiasm.
"You can see his little fingers! Like he's waving hello."
"Are you lookin' at my hermanito?" Caroline demands, inserting herself onto her Uncle Mark's lap.
"We are. Pretty cute, huh?"
Caroline wrinkles her nose in distaste. "He looks slimy."
"Slimy!" Arizona objects. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Caroline giggles.
"Well, that's surprisingly accurate," Mark teases.
"Uncle Mark," Caroline sighs. "Is Susie gonna get an hermanito, too?"
Arizona laughs at the look of panic that crosses Mark's face. Caroline and Susie, much like Lena and Grey, are attached at the hip, best friends separated by the three months between their birthdays and little else. What one has, the other immediately expects.
"Uh, no. No, Aunt Lexie's not gonna have any more babies."
"You could get one from someone else," the three-year-old suggests. "We're getting ours from Marisol."
Arizona snorts, turning away to hide her laugh as best she can.
"A little help here, Robbins?" Mark mutters.
"Cari-baby," Arizona says, barely controlling her laugh. "Aunt Lexie and Uncle Mark have decided their family is just the right size. Families come in all shapes and sizes, remember? Now, did you leave Susie all alone to clean up your Barbies?"
Caroline's eyes widen, and she immediately hops down and scurries back to her friend to avoid a reprimand.
"She's a piece of work," Mark shakes his head. He points to the phone in her hand. "He's looking good. So, are you guys, like, on-call, to fly to LA at the drop of a hat?"
"Pretty much. Teen moms can go early, so it's just a waiting game now."
"Well, put us on-call to grab the kids if it's before the grandma patrol gets here."
"Thanks, will do."
"We won!" Asa exclaims into the phone.
Callie laughs at his exuberance, setting down a chart and leaning against the nurse's station.
"Oh, and Lena 'n' Grey won, too. Grey wants you to tell his mom. She's in surgery right now."
"Okay. I'll tell Aunt Lexie when I see her. Did you score any runs?"
"Yes, ma'am." She can hear him drifting off, distracting by the noise of the car. Callie grins at the image of Arizona and Mark driving around with all five kids in the SUV. She really loves when they spend time together. And often wishes there was a hidden camera. "Momma wants to talk to you. Bye. Te quiero."
"Te quiero, m'ijo," Callie laughs at his hurry.
"Hey, Cal."
"You're not Momma."
"Excellent powers of observation. We're having technical difficulties with Sus's car seat. Robbins pointed out my ineptitude and took over."
"She's good at that. Especially with you."
"Blondie loves me; she just can't admit it yet."
There's a crackle as the phone transfers hands.
"Yeah, right."
Callie can hear Arizona's eye roll over the line.
"Hey babe. How are you?"
"Frozen, but good. Mark and I are taking the kids for burgers, then we'll go home and clean up. I promised Teddy we'd stop by and see Baby Nicholas later. I was thinking I'd bring dinner. Remember how crazy those first few months with the first one are?"
Callie laughs. "Yeah, we weren't so good at the multi-tasking then. I get off at seven. I'll call and see where you are."
"Perfect. Any good surgeries today?"
"Couple tib-fibs, nothing fancy. Hey, I've got another call beeping through. I'll call you later."
"Okay. Love you."
"Love you, too." Callie looks at the unknown number with a frown as she switches over. "Torres."
"Callie? Oh god. I'm sorry. No intenté hacerlo, pero..."
"Marisol? Marisol, slow down."
"I got in a big fight with my mami and no pude estar allĂ and..."
"Slow down. Are you okay? Where are you?"
"Seattle bus terminal. And I think my water just broke."
"What?"
"OB said she just started. There's time. Can you come, please?"
"I, god, of course, Mark. I'm on my way out the door. But how did she get up there?"
"She took the bus. Cal said she got in a huge fight with her mom about giving up the baby, and she just panicked and got on the next bus she could. I didn't get any other details; they're both at the hospital with her. Lex and I have the kids for now. Grandparents are on the way, but it'll be a day or two. Callie asked them to wait so they didn't overwhelm Marisol."
"Well, at least he'll be born at Seattle Grace like his siblings," Addison laughs, still in shock, throwing a few essentials into her suitcase with a shake of her head.
"There's that. You need me to get someone to pick you up at the airport?"
"No, no. I'll take a cab. Easier that way."
"Okay. Thanks, Addy. I know they really appreciate it."
"Of course. I wouldn't miss it."
TBC
