I rewrote this chapter probably four times before I was happy with it, and that's why it took so long. I hope you all like it. Let me know how you feel!

Disclaimer: I own zero things besides the undying love for Shonda that I practice on a daily basis.

"A-Amelia? Amelia?"

Arizona felt the word leave her lips before she had even thought it. Her voice, she noted, sounded thin and hoarse. But the name felt like honey down her throat. She wanted to say it again.

"Amelia."

It's dark, she thought. Am I asleep? Is this a dream? She thought for a moment, but the dull ache in her bones told her that it wasn't.

Her eyes were just closed.

She heard noise around her; it was senseless, white noise. Buzzing and beeping. The noise came from familiar tones, voices that she knew and machines that she recognized – but she couldn't pull the syllables apart. Whatever they were saying, they were saying quickly and loudly.

She heard, rather than felt, someone next to her. Their cold skin felt sticky and strange against her own when they touched her. Slowly she felt sounds melting away into single words.

"Awake," she heard.

"Page."

And then she heard the one that felt good, "Amelia."

It took her a moment to remember what that word meant, but when an image appeared against her eyelids, one of a beautiful woman with dark hair and ocean blue eyes reaching down to pick up a child while she laughed, she knew. She remembered.

Her eyelids didn't obey her at first. She wanted to open them, to see that woman and to tell her what she needed to tell her. But they stayed closed, no matter how she tugged at them in her mind. Sounds turned into voices, panicked and happy ones.

She heard her daughter giggling just beside her.

"Have you paged Shepherd yet?" She heard a friend's voice demand from somewhere near her feet. Meredith Grey, she thought. Dr. Grey. She imagined she was shouting at an intern.

The recipient of Grey's lashing mumbled a response – an affirmation. Soon she heard another voice.

"Dr. Bailey, is she waking up?"

That one was familiar, too. It was deep and strong. It was her father.

Why is Dad here? She asked. Where am I, anyways? Arizona couldn't remember. She couldn't remember falling asleep, or laying down. All she could remember was driving, thinking that she loved Amelia so much, thinking that she had to tell her.

Miranda's voice sounded, this time. "It looks like it," the woman hummed for a moment, "her brain waves are looking good. She's waking up."

Arizona started to wonder what she was waking up from when suddenly, light broke into her dark world. Suddenly she wished it hadn't; everything was white and ghastly. Pain radiated through her body, resonating most deeply along the sides of her head.

"Mommy!" She heard her daughter's voice cry gleefully. She blinked repeatedly, waiting for her eyes to adjust as she turned towards the voice.

"Sof, back up honey," she heard another voice say. It was familiar. It didn't affect her as her daughter came into focus.

"Hey baby," she whispered, smiling at the tiny face beside her. Speech felt sloppy on her lips – thick and sticky.

"Mommy, I'm so happy you're awake! You slept forever!" The child exclaimed. She was beaming. Arizona responded in kind.

"Did I?" She said. She heard a new noise, this one more sudden. It sounded like squeaking – like shoes on the basketball ball court her brother had played on when she was a child. She turned her head, allowing her eyes to sleepily process the room as she searched for the noise. She saw Miranda Bailey, Meredith, her mother and father, Callie…

And Amelia.

Her eyes took in the sight of the disheveled woman, standing in the door. Her mouth was gaping, eyes wide and in shock. She saw tears dripping down the woman's cheeks.

"Amelia," she said again, this time to the person she'd wanted to say it to from the beginning.

Amelia followed her voice, stepping past Dr. Bailey and Sofia, not breaking eye contact until she stopped just above Arizona's head.

"Hi," she said. Her voice was hoarse and sad, but it sounded like sugar and home. Arizona felt the pain drain from her head at the single syllable.

She knew then – she had to say it.

"I love you."

She watched as the words changed Amelia's face. The tears grew larger, more frequent, but her lips and eyes grew happier. Amelia's shoulders relaxed and she set her warm, gentle hand against Arizona's cold cheek.

"I love you too," she answered. Arizona beamed back.

Amelia didn't break eye contact as Arizona felt the room thin out. Sofia was no longer in her periphery and she could no longer hear her father's breathing, labored with age. There was only Amelia, dark blue eyes capturing her crystalline ones. Amelia's were bloodshot, with dark circles underlining them down to the middle of her cheeks. There were new lines on the brunette's face, ones that Arizona didn't remember seeing before. She wondered for a moment before she found the words to ask.

"Amelia, why am I in a hospital bed?"

Her face fell further, but she tried on a weak smile as she climbed into the bed next to Arizona. She took a moment to snuggle up next to her, a position that felt vaguely familiar to the blonde.

Once Amelia was settled, she answered.

"You were in an accident, Arizona."

"An accident? Like, what kind of accident?" She asked, reaching in her mind for a memory; she couldn't recall an accident. Only driving across the bridge and then darkness.

"A semi hit you, honey. It hit you and knocked you off of the bridge," Amelia's voice was somber, traces of sadness weaving their way through her words.

"Oh."

When Amelia spoke next, Arizona could hear the tears choking her. "You had to have surgery. They didn't know – you'd been under water for a long time and – and they didn't know if you would…"

"If I would make it," she finished as Amelia succumbed to sobs that racked her body. Arizona held Amelia tighter against her body as she stared at the ceiling, trying to allow the reality of the situation to sink in.

She had almost died.

Her parents were there. Because she had almost died.

Callie was there. Because she had almost died.

Amelia had spent god-knows how long crying. Because she had almost died.

And here she was, crying for probably the thousandth time in – how many days had it been? She didn't know. It could have been one day, but it could have been weeks yet. She would never know, she imagined, the tears that had been cried or the time spent or even the units of blood transferred. She had been asleep through it all; guilt overwhelmed her senses.

Arizona mustered up all of the strength her aching body had and pulled the brunette even closer, crushing her against her side. She hoped that Amelia could feel the love pouring through her, could understand how sorry she was for everything that had happened. Slowly, Amelia's cries began to taper off. Her tears slowed and her body settled as she drifted into unconsciousness tucked into Arizona's body.

As her girlfriend slept, Arizona stared at the ceiling and wondered what would happen when Dr. Bailey came back in the room. She wondered if she'd get to go home soon.