Chapter 14

Arizona retreated to her office to find a bit of peace and quiet after the hectic day she was having. It was only noon and she had already had three children come in after a multi vehicle crash and a little boy who had been attacked by a dog. Once she had ensured everyone was in a stable condition she needed to take a moment for herself. Hopefully, that moment would include a quick nap. She lay down on the sofa that was in her office, resting her forearm over her eyes to shield out the light peeking through the window. Just as she was about to drift off to sleep her lab coat pocket started vibrating. Retrieving the annoying item from her pocket, she noticed that it was an email from Chief Berger.

To: Dr. Arizona Robbins, Head of Pediatric Surgery

From: Dr. Howard Berger, Chief of Surgery

Dr. Robbins,

I wanted you to be the first to know, I received word back from the board this morning. Dr. O' Donnell and Dr. Tyler were both in their agreement as to who should be your predecessor as the head of the Pediatrics department. I've already sent out an offer letter to Dr. Alex Karev and have already received his verbal acceptance first thing this morning.

As agreed, I will expect you to finish out your working notice effective until the 1st of next month.

Arizona jumped for joy upon reading the email. Her plan had worked out after all, but above that Alex had got the job and she knew that he was the best man for it, of course he was, she had trained him. She looked at her watch; if she knew Alex as well as she thought she did she knew that he would have already given his notice at Seattle Grace.

She scrolled through the contacts of her phone and stopped when she found Owen Hunt and pressed send to dial the number.

"Chief Hunt." The man answered.

"Hey Owen…It's me Arizona."

"Arizona? Hey! Long time no speak. How've you been?"

"I'm good. And you?"

"Things are doing well. Funny that I hear from you today of all times, my head of peds just put in his notice today…" Owen said completely unaware of the intentions of the phone call.

"Well…Owen, that's kind of what I was calling you about…" she started.

"Oh? You have someone in mind for the job?" He asked "The last thing I need is an unmanned department on my hands."

"Actually…I do." She said. She knew that she was more than qualified for the job but she couldn't help the butterflies that were starting to flutter around in her stomach. "What about me?"

"You've got to be kidding me." Owen was not expecting this. To lose a surgeon and to gain a replacement in just a matter of hours was mind boggling to him, especially a surgeon that he knew and respected that works at one of the best hospitals in the nation.

"No…I'm not. Alex is actually going to be taking over my position here at Children's Hospital Boston. And let's just say, I have a renewed desire to be closer to The Emerald City. So, if you will have me…I would like to apply to your newly opened position."

"No need to apply. Arizona, it's yours." He knew he was lucky to have her. "By the way, you wouldn't have anything to do with the smile that's been on Torres' face lately, would you?

…

Three weeks later.

"Wait! We're doing what?" Sophia asked dramatically. It was a wonder that she had never taken a drama class in her life with the way she was able to feign mock horror at the drop of a dime.

"We are going to fly to Boston to help Arizona move here." Callie said her voice calm to try to counteract the teenagers over exaggeration.

"Okay Mom. I got that part. But we are flying there over my spring break…to pack up all of Arizona's stuff…and then we are driving across the country to Seattle…over 3000 miles away?" Sophia was going for an Oscar win with this performance "Stopping along the way to 'camp'? Is that to make it seem like a big family vacation?"

"Yeah…that about hits the nail right on the head." Callie answered laughing at her daughter's narration of the events to come. "Or…you could stay with your dad for the week if you want." The older woman countered.

"Oh No!" Sophia flashed a wide grin "There's no way I'm going to miss my chance of seeing you try to play woman with nature! No way, Mom! But can Zola come?"

"Let me talk to Meredith and Derek about it. If it is okay with them, then it is okay with me."

…..

The six hour flight had been an extraordinarily long with not one but two giggling teenagers on board. When the trio finally arrived to Boston they had found that a hired moving company had already packed up the apartment and loaded all of its contents up on a 20 foot truck.

Arizona greeted the girls with a smile. She pulled everyone in for a hug and quickly introduced herself to Zola.

"What's all this?" Callie asked as she walked into the practically empty apartment. She reached out and pulled Arizona into a kiss.

"I figured I would make it easy on us." Arizona smiled, enjoying the feeling of her girlfriends arms wrapped around her. "I've hired the moving company to drive the truck to Seattle. That way, we get to take it easy. We get to all spend this the time actually together and not one driving the truck and one driving my car. Oh and I've already got all of the camping gear packed up in the car and ready to go. This is going to be super fantastic!"

"Sounds like an excellent plan. You ready for this?"

"I think if we can make it through a 3000 mile road trip across the country, we can make it through anything."

….

The four of them settled in for the night on air mattresses on the floor of Arizona's now empty apartment, Sophia and Zola had their bed made up in the living room and Arizona and Callie in the bedroom. The two older women laid in silence, wrapped up in each other's arms. Callie could feel the soft sobs that were coming from her partner. "Arizona, why are you crying?" she asked.

"Because Callie…." Arizona tightened her grip on the woman in her arms. "I've been waiting for this moment for so long. I can't believe I finally have you in my life again..."

"You better believe it." Callie pulled the blonde in closer to comfort her; she pushed the stray lock of blonde hair out of her face. "Forever, Arizona. We are going to grow old together."

"I love you Calliope…forever."

….

"Alright everyone! Up and at 'em!" Arizona announced as she marched through the apartment. "We need to be on the road within an half an hour."

Zola quickly got up and hurried off to the bathroom to shower and get dressed. Unfortunately, both of the Torres women were still lying in bed fast asleep, with their heads buried under their pillows. Arizona walked into the bedroom and started to tap her foot heavily on the air mattress to pull Callie out of her slumber. "Callie, wake up!"

"No! People shouldn't have to ever be up at this hour!" the brunette protested.

"Callie, it's already six am! Get up!"

"Ugh…."

"Do you want to get me home or what?" Arizona asked, she tried to hide her laughter. She had always thought that no-so-morning Callie was incredibly endearing.

"I'm awake!" Callie sprang up out of her sleep. "Let's get you home!"

"Good! Now go wake your daughter, mornings is definitely something she inherited from you!" Arizona laughed.

…

It had been a long three days of driving, The Alphabet Game, and show tunes. They decided to push through as get as far as they could the first three legs of the trip , driving 13 hour days they decided to stay overnight in Cleveland and Minneapolis along the way. The real fun began when they pulled into Yellow River Campground just outside of Billings, Montana. It was important for Callie to have some sort of family time during this trip. For some reason she thought camping for three days in the Montana wilderness was just what the doctor ordered.

Sophia and Zola came bounding off the dock running up to the two older women who were trying to get their campsite set up. Sophia hesitated for a moment before pulling Arizona in for a hug. "This is awesome, Arizona. Thanks for planning this."

Arizona hugged her back, as if it was something they had done for years. "You're welcome, Soph. This is going to be a super awesome weekend!" Callie just watched on, grinning from ear to ear, at the affection between the two most important people in her life.

"Okay, guys, let's get this car unloaded!" Callie announced.

The women worked quickly getting the tents set up and the car unloaded. "Good Lord, Arizona! Could you have brought more stuff?" Callie was staring at all of the bags of food, drinks and other supplies. "You know we are only going to be here for the weekend, right?"

Arizona just laughed and continued unpacking. "Hey… I just wanted to be prepared. I want you all to have an authentic camping experience. You know…S'mores and all."

"What's S'mores?" both of the Torres women said in unison.

Zola just stood there snickering at the two women. "What?" Arizona asked completely shocked. "You guys are kidding, right?"

"Umm…No. We're not." Callie answered with a playfully annoyed tone.

The blonde just shook her head. "Zola, care to enlighten these first time campers what a S'more is?"

Zola laughed hard as she began to explain. "You take a graham cracker square and you put a piece of Hershey's chocolate on it. Then you roast a marshmallow over the campfire and you put it on top of the chocolate…Another graham cracker square and voila! A gooey, chocolately, marshmallowly, S'more!

"That sounds yummy!" Sophia said animatedly.

"It is!" Arizona agreed. "Now, let's finish getting our campsite set up before nightfall so we can get the fire going."

….

The girls worked hard to set up their camp before the sun had set. They had two large tents set up, one for Callie and Arizona and one for Sophia and Zola. After dinner they quickly tried out the S'mores for dessert but it had been a long day of driving, so everyone agreed to retreat to bed early.

Sophia and Zola laid there on their air mattress staring up at the tent ceiling above them.

"I really like Arizona." Zola said after a long period of silence.

"Yeah…me too." Sophia said.

"But how do you feel about her moving in with you guys?" Zola asked, looking over to see her best friend's reaction.

"I don't know. But I do want my mom to be happy. And she seems really happy with Arizona. So, I'm okay with it." Sophia could see that her mother loved Arizona ever since the day they ran into her in Boston. She couldn't help but wonder what had happened between them in the past but over the past few months the teenager had grown to really get to know and like Arizona. And no one could miss the permanent smile that was plastered all over her mother's face.

"I wonder why they broke up before…" Zola questioned aloud no really expecting an answer.

"I don't know." Sophia answered. "Mom hasn't really wanted to talk about it."

The two girls laid there in silence once again, staring up at the ceiling above them. Both we're exhausted from the long day they had had and were about to drift off to sleep.

"Soph…Do you hear that?" Zola whispered, as her elbowed her best friend.