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4 years later (Laura 11, Sofia 8)

"Mooommaa, leave me alone." Laura whined when Arizona came into the room to wake her up for school. She remembered the time when Laura had been a morning person but somehow that had changed a lot.

"Nope, get up. I already told you ten minutes ago." Arizona pulled down the blanket, slung her arms around her daughter and pushed her out of the bed. She was lucky that Laura was still small and light for her age and that she could still carry her around. She half dragged and carried her pre-teen into the bathroom. Laura snuggled into Arizona's neck and let her eyes stay closed until she hear her mama turning on the shower.

"Can't I stay at home?"

"Nope," Arizona kissed Laura's forehead and went outside the bathroom again where her other daughter greeted her.

"Morning momma!" compared to Laura Sofia was a big eight year old girl and to all surprise a morning person. Sofia and Laura got along great, their fights weren't big and most of the time neither of their moms had to intervene.

"Morning," Arizona kissed her chubby cheek, "Can't your sister be a morning person like you are?"

"Don't think so. She's like mommy," Sofia laughed and took the cereals as she saw her sister jumping into the room only in her underpants and looking around. Something that frequently happened in the morning. Arizona and Sofia looked at each other and laughed.

"Again Laura? When will you learn to put your prosthesis at the same spot every night?" Arizona shook her head and then kissed her tired wife. "You can continue sleeping, honey. Your shift starts late."

"I know but I want to see you all and I woke up on top of a prosthesis," Callie kissed Sofia and then pulled Laura onto her lap to tickle her merciless, "Your prosthesis is in our bed and if I find it there again you'll be grounded for two weeks."

"That would not be fair," Sofia answered with a full mouth and defended her big sister.

"And you too because you talk with a full mouth," Callie joked and pointed a finger at her youngest daughter. She smirked at Arizona when Laura still wasn't dressed except of her prosthesis and underpants.

"What?" Laura asked her mothers as she got into her shirt.

"Who's Austin?" Callie asked curiously and suppressed her laugh when Laura looked extremely shocked at her.

"Calliope!" Arizona rolled her eyes to make her wife be quiet but she could tell that Callie was in her teasing mode.

"Austin, the one in the heart besides you." Callie pointed at the prosthesis that has lots of writing on it and was colored. Laura always loved to pimp it up.

"Austin is her boyfriend." Sofia pretended to kiss someone.

"He's not." Laura said embarrassed but blushed into a deep red.

"He is!" Sofia said back.

"He is not."

"He is!"

"No"

"Yes"

"No, he isn't."

"Okay you two, stop it!" Arizona answered and looked at the watch, "Laura, get fully dressed and Sofia, is your bag packed?"

"Mama, it's not even half past. When mommy takes us to school we have more time in the morning." Sofia whined but stood up when her mama raised an eyebrow.

"And when mommy takes you to school you are late most of the times," Arizona looked with a smirk at Callie who couldn't protest because it was the truth.

Xxxxxxxxxx

This night Arizona and Callie were lying in each others arms and going through old photo albums. There were so many happy pictures in it and they remembered every moment. "How happy you look there." Callie pointed at a picture where Arizona was sitting in a bikini for the first time after her amputation.

"It's so beautiful here." Callie said and watched Laura and Sofia building a tower out of sand. In contrast to Arizona, Laura didn't mind showing her stomp on a beach that was full of people.

"Mommy, can we go into the water?" Sofia asked and jumped up in joy when Callie nodded. Immediately the girls ran to the water. They had their own special technique: Laura would put one arm on Sofia's shoulder to jump faster to the water. It looked effortless.

"They are so cute." Arizona whispered feeling very grateful. She couldn't imagine her life without the two kids and she didn't regret adopting Laura for one second.

"You are cute." Callie kissed her softly on the mouth and then put sun crème onto her face. "But in contrast to me, you get a sunburn very fast, whitey!"

"Did you call me whitey?" Arizona laughed and continued watching the kids. They got along great. Sofia was four now and Laura eight. Both of them had fun in the waves and ducked under again and again.

xxxxx

"Come here." Arizona opened her arms with the towel and Laura slumped down to get dry. Callie did the same with their youngest.
"You are shivering. Is the water that cold?" Callie asked.

"It's freezing, mommy but we love it." Sofia answered, "Why don't you come inside as well?"

"Go. I'll wait here." Arizona said and Callie hesitated for a moment. She knew the reason why Arizona stayed under a towel and didn't want to come into the ocean but she hoped that some day her wife would realize that she was still very beautiful.

"Are you sure?" Callie squeezed Arizona's hand. They had made so much progress but there were still many issues that they needed to address.

"Yes. I'll watch you three." Arizona put on her sunglass and smiled.

"I can stay with you, if you want." Laura suggested and sat down besides her moma. She didn't mind wearing a bikini and showing her stomp but it was a whole different story for Arizona.

"No, go have fun, sweetheart." Arizona said. She definitely didn't want Laura to miss all the fun because of her.

Laura sat down besides her moma and looked a little sadly at her. She then took a towel as well to put it over her stomp to hide it. "I'm sorry!"

Arizona looked down confused at Laura.

"Wha..at?" Arizona didn't know why Laura felt sorry but then saw how Laura looked sadly at her hidden stomp.

"You don't like our stomps because they look…weird and I'm sorry I showed it to other people. I'll sit here now with you, okay?" It broke Arizona's heart to hear such words coming out of a child. Part of it was true, Arizona was still having problem with her stomp, not around her family but around strangers. But Arizona would never ever forbid Laura to show her stomp and she was in no way disgusted by Laura's.

Laura then whispered in a sad tone, "My stomp is disgusting, right? I can start wearing only long stuff too! I don't mind."

"What?" Arizona asked shocked. She had the hunch that Laura had heard Callie and her conversation last night how Arizona felt about her stomp in public. Arizona felt very guilty right now that her beautiful daughter thought that she could find anything on her body disgusting.

"You never come swimming with us and it's really fun, even with one leg." Laura said honestly.

"Your stomp is not disgusting, Laura. Not at all." She pulled her onto her lap, pushed down the towel and massaged the stomp of her daughter. In contrast to hers, the knee was not missing.

"Then why don't you come have fun with us?" Laura continued. She always needed an answer for a question.

"Um…well, people stare you know. I don't want them to stare at me." Arizona said honestly. Lying to Laura was useless. In the end Laura would always find out the truth.

"But they always stare. Because you are very beautiful and because you have great blue eyes, because you're in love with a woman and not a man, because you have dimples and because you have a sunburn on your nose." Laura smiled down at Arizona and touched the nose. Sometimes Arizona couldn't believe how wise a kid could be. Especially Laura could say sentences full of deep meaning that would surprise her and Callie, Alex, her teacher and other grown-ups.

"Oh no, I do?" Arizona touched her nose and put some crème onto it.

"Yes! At school a boy stared at me really long. His name is Austin and he just didn't stop. My friend then went to him and yelled at him and told him that it was not nice to stare at me just because I just have one leg. He said that I have two but that he never saw anyone with really dark hair and such blue eyes. We are friends now."

"You really have amazing eyes." Arizona said.

"You too, Mama," Laura was shocked herself. This was the first time that she had called them that way. Although she was very happy with her new family it was still sometimes hard knowing that her biological family would definitely never come back.

Arizona suddenly felt super proud, her heart raced and she knew that it was time to get over her fear and be a great role model to her daughter.

"You know what, screw the people who are watching. Let's go bathing." She jumped onto her one leg, it still looked way easier when Laura did it but she didn't mind. Then Laura put her arm around Arizona's waist and helped her jumping.

"Mom, look what I've found," Sofia showed her a big crab and immediately Arizona jumped into the water and screamed.

"Put that thing away from me." Callie laughed loudly and slung her arms around her wife from behind.

"God, this is amazing." Arizona yelled when she started swimming. She felt free and realized that here, in the water, no one was looking at her and that it felt like nothing was missing. She swam to her wife and then slung one leg around her while the arms were around her neck.

"I love you!"

"I love you too, you dolphin." Callie laughed loudly while Arizona snuggled into her neck.

"She called me Mama," Arizona had huge sparkling eyes, "She called me, Mama, Calliope!"

"What? Why do I always miss such moments?" Callie whined and kissed Arizona happily. "That is…oh my god, really?" Callie felt very happy but also hoped that Laura would call her mommy too one day. Happy tears rushed into her eyes when she heard the next sentence.

"Moommmy. Stop kissing Mama all the time." Laura screamed and splashed them together with her sister.

"Oh, you're in trouble!"" Callie laughed and let go of Arizona who immediately dumped under the water and surfaced shocked. She burst out into laughing when she saw Callie throwing the kids around.

"Hey, wait for me!" Alex ran into the water and took Laura and threw her high into the air. "And you too, you little bug."

"Uncle Alex." Sofia laughed loudly.

Xxxxxxx

Callie and Arizona looked at another picture, "Oh god, look how sad she looks there."

"That was a hard day!"

Callie, Alex and Arizona sat nervously on the couch and waited for Laura to come upstairs from playing with a neighbor. She was with them for four months now.

"I don't like this," Arizona whispered and nibbled at her lip.

"Me neither," Alex answered madly and took a coke out of the fridge. It was totally normal for him to be here from time to time and having a say in some rules. Laura's therapist had suggested that they had to forbid Laura to continue coloring her hair in black. It was not good for a child and Laura had to let go from her past a little bit.

Laura came inside happily, got out of her shoes and then ran over to Alex, "Alex! I didn't know you would come today," she hugged him tightly.

"Sure, I wanted to see you and we have to talk to you," Alex pushed Laura into the middle of him and Arizona while Callie sat in front of her.

"Okay, I can read way better now. Can I read something to you? And Callie, in school we have a new girl and her name is Callie too but it's spelled differently and…"

"You are not allowed to color your hair any more!" Alex burped out without thinking. Arizona and Callie looked madly at him and couldn't believe how insensitive he could be from time to time.

"What?" Laura looked shocked from one adult to another. They could tell that she was about to cry.

"Honey, remember how we told you that coloring your hair is very unhealthy and that it will hurt you in the long term? If you continue, then you'll…"

"But I want to have black hair," Laura lost the fight and the tears rushed down her cheek.

"Sweetie, I know we do but your natural hair is so beautiful and it fits your blue eyes. Just like Arizona's.

"I want to have black hair," Laura started to scream hysterically and hyperventilated. She looked madly at them and let herself fall onto another chair and cried into it. "I want to have black haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair!"

Arizona couldn't see such a break down and pulled the small girl onto her lap and let her cry into her shoulders. Although Laura protested at first, Arizona held her tightly and didn't let her go out of her embrace.

Xxxxxxx

This evening Callie and Arizona were exhausted, "She even cried herself to sleep," Callie looked guiltily at Arizona, "Did we do the right thing? It's so important to her. Maybe it's too early."

"I don't think it's too early. Her sister or family won't come back to her by having black hair and she's still young, it's better to forbid it now," Arizona whispered and smiled softly when their door opened and Laura came inside. Immediately Arizona opened her arms and pulled her in the middle.

Laura sucked her thumb and still had tears in her eyes, "Can I please color my hair? Please!"

"Laura," Callie whispered sadly and went through Laura's hair as the girl continued sobbing in their arms. Suddenly Callie got up with a smile. "I have an idea. You want black hair, right? Just like your sister Luisa?"

Laura nodded, "and like you!" she added and made Callie smile.

"Well, we won't allow you to color your hair because it's very unhealthy but how about we buy you a wig? You can wear it whenever you want!" Laura didn't know what to say, "Give it a try, sweetie. We buy one right tomorrow in the morning. I promise, okay?"

Laura didn't say anything but snuggled closer to Callie and continued crying.

"Callie, that's a great idea. I think I'll buy one for myself too. It's like magic. You can put it on and take it off wherever and whenever you want."

Laura looked at Arizona curiously. "Right, babe. That's the best about wigs and they look very real. I think I buy myself one too. A red one."

"Red?" Arizona laughed, "Laura, do you think red is a good color for Callie?"

Laura showed a little smile and shook her head.

"Hey, don't team up on me, you two. Which color should I then get?" Callie continued distracting Laura from her sadness and was glad that it worked. When Laura talked neither Arizona nor Callie understood a word, so Callie pulled Laura's thumb out of her mouth.

"Blue, like a smurf!" Laura laughed, "And you can get a pink one!"

"Great, so let's all get to sleep fast, so that we get the wigs right in the morning. Whoever falls asleep the fastest wins," Callie said but realized that Laura was a little too old for this game. With seven years she already understood that this was a trick.

"You don't know if you won when you sleep," Laura said and got into a sitting position and touched her stomach in pain.

"Are you okay?" Arizona went through her hair softly. Laura often got a stomachache after crying a lot.

"My scar hurts," Laura answered. Arizona and Callie had often seen Laura's scars from the accident but Laura had never talked about them.

"Do you need the magic crème?" Arizona asked Laura who looked confused at her, "We put it on your scars and the pain will go away in your sleep. Just lay down," Arizona jumped out of the bed and into the bathroom. She looked around for any crème that she could take and then jumped into the bed again. "I put this on my stomp sometimes and it works magic!"

Laura nodded hesitantly and then pulled up her shirt. Callie and Arizona took a bit of the crème and started to massage it onto the small stomach.

"Does this feel good?" Callie whispered and could tell that Laura was about to fall asleep.

"Yes," Laura whispered and tried to stay awake but soon she lost the fight.

Xxxxxxx

The next day the four of them walked along the streets with their wigs. Callie had her blue one, Arizona a pink one, Sofia a green one and Laura the black one. All of them laughed nonstop and had a great day.

Xxxxxxx

"Do we still have the wigs?" Arizona asked Callie and closed the album.

"Probably somewhere. I can't believe we spent 100 dollars for a wig that she didn't even wear for a month," Callie laughed and slung her arms around her wife's waist. Both of them fell asleep in each other's arms a little later.

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