CHAPTER 4

"Do you mean it? Do you really mean it?" Arizona said excitedly down the phone, as Callie squeezed her hand and smiled at her. She knew Karev would come through for Arizona.

"I said so, didn't I?" Alex said, as he ran his hand through his hair, and he heard her let out a small excited squeal down the phone, causing him to hold it away from his ear slightly. He knew Arizona would be happy, but not quite this excited. Who knew a cupful of his 'best swimmers,' could ever cause this much excitement he thought, as he smiled to himself.

"Okay, so we'll be there in ten minutes," Arizona said, taking on a slightly calmer tone.

"Ten minutes!" Alex exclaimed. He hadn't expected they would want him to come up with the goods that day. He had pre-op rounds soon, and then surgeries later that he needed to focus on.

"Well, you know our hotel is just down the road from the hospital and we'd really like to take your, um….'contribution', back to Seattle with us today."

"You're actually planning on using it today? I thought I could just have it shipped?" Alex said, sounding a little taken aback.

"Well, we're not really keen on getting it shipped. So, if it's okay, we wanted to freeze it and take it back with us ourselves…But we won't be using it today, we'll have to wait for my most fertile time obviously, to give us the best possible chance" and she paused and swallowed, as she said… " and we want the conception to be,…. you know, 'special!"

"Oh, okay," Alex sad awkwardly. He was a doctor, so he had a fair idea how these things worked, but he felt distinctly uncomfortable discussing the exact specifics with Arizona, she was his friend and old boss after all.

Alex was sat in the on call room, perched on the edge of a narrow hard bunk. His head was in his hands as he stared blankly at the sterile plastic cup placed on the table in front of him.

His body was tense all over and he had honestly never felt under such immense pressure to perform in his life. He tried to get thoughts of Arizona out of his head as he willed his body to respond and he thought of his wife, 'Izzie', causing his body to then slowly stir with the desired effect.

He sank back slightly and closed his eyes as he tried to remember every detail of their perfect wedding night, 'their second wedding night'. Not that their first one hadn't been perfect too, both occasions had been equally as loving, passionate and intimate, but the lack of physical action on their first one due to Izzie's illness had been more than been made up for by their second one, where they had both been in 'immaculate health'. Alex grinned then, as he felt himself letting go, just as he was interrupted by an abrupt knock on the door.

"Err…..Alex, are you nearly done? It's just we've got a plane to catch." Arizona said hastily through the door.

Alex instantly felt his body tense up again, and he groaned, as he heard Callie saying "Maybe we should just give him some space."

'Great, so they're both out there' Alex thought irritatingly, as he said gruffly. "I'd be doing better, if I knew you weren't outside the door listening."

"Sorry. We'll just be in the cafeteria then….take your time." Arizona replied softly, and he relaxed a little, as he heard them both walking away.

Alex then remembered the first time he had been in this situation back in Seattle. Sat on an uncomfortable bunk in an on call room, with a sterile white cup glaring at him, waiting to be filled up with his 'best swimmers'. Only that time it had been the Chief Richard Webber, listening urgently outside the door and not Arizona and Callie. That time he had been willing himself to perform for his future with Izzie, and it had been a sad day as he had just found out about her illness and if he was honest he had never really expected that what he was doing back then would result in a new life. Whereas this time, it was a 'happy day' and he was doing it for Arizona's future with Callie, and in contrast to that first time, this time he fully expected what he was doing to result in a new life.

Plus, he now had two healthy babies of his own, that actually as it turned out had both been 'made' the good old fashioned way with Izzie, just as they always should have been, he thought.

He closed his eyes again as he thought of another first time in an 'on call room' back at Seattle Grace. The day of the bomb scare, when he'd had sex for the first time with Izzie, and he smiled as he remembered like it was only yesterday just how much finally sleeping with her, had blown his mind, and as he lost himself in the memories, his body was more than quick to respond this time and moments later he was 'home'...job done!

...

"Here's your cup, all filled up," Alex said, as he proudly handed the cup over to an eagerly waiting Arizona.

"Thanks," she said excitedly, as Callie's face displayed a small sign of disgust, as Arizona clutched it tightly in her hand.

"You're the best Karev," Arizona said, as she hugged him tightly, crushing him slightly, as he eventually pulled away.

Alex looked a little embarrassed then, as he said, slightly awkwardly "No problem…. So, umm... have a safe trip and that"….."Oh, and good luck," he mumbled, as they walked away.

It had been exactly ten days, since they had performed the insemination process. It had been just as Arizona had wanted it to be, intimate and full of love. Just her and Callie together in the privacy of their own home, conceiving a baby – hopefully!

They had agreed they would take a test on the first day of her missed period. But Arizona had never been the most patient of people and the wait to see if she actually was pregnant or not, was literally driving her crazy. Callie had told her that there was no point in testing until the first day of her missed period. That way they would avoid the disappointment of getting a negative result. But Arizona wasn't sure if she could wait, not even for another day.

Surprisingly, for a doctor Arizona had reasonably little knowledge about how the whole early stages of conception and pregnancy worked, apart from the stuff she had learnt about way back in med school, looking at it purely from a scientific point of view. Arizona, had just never thought it would be something she would need to worry about herself, being that she had been so sure that she never wanted to have a baby of her own.

So she'd had absolutely no idea, just how much she would keep fantasizing about new-born babies. How she would keep thinking about what it would be like to eventually discover that she was actually carrying a little life of her own inside her.

Arizona wasn't sure if it was purely the placebo effect, or the result of being around so many new borns in her job anyway. But she could have sworn that she had started to feel her breasts tingling at times, and the occasional slight sensation of nausea. But again, Callie, had repeatedly brought her back to earth by telling her that it was way too soon for pregnancy hormones to be taking any sort of real effect.

But Arizona knew that she wasn't completely imagining it. She didn't feel quite right, and as she was in the NICU finishing her pre-op rounds, she found herself locked into another day-dream about her, Callie and Sofia, leaving the hospital with their tiny new-born baby bundled up in their arms.

...

"Okay, so the OR is scheduled for 3pm,….Dr Robbins….Dr Robbins….Are you listening? Are you okay?"

"Sorry, what?...Yeah, I heard you, OR…3pm, Gotcha…" Arizona said, as she was swiftly snapped away from her day-dream and back to reality, as she glanced back at the slightly exasperated and concerned face of Dr Bailey standing in front of her.

Bailey, was clutching the chart of the new-born baby, that they were due to be performing the surgery on later that day with one hand, the other was placed firmly on her hip, as she gave Arizona a slightly more motherly look, and said again. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Arizona said, as she quickly turned to examine the new-born one more time, and she sighed as she thought how call it law of attraction, but since they had got back from Baltimore all her cases seemed to have revolved around the NICU.

"Well, you look like I feel. You want to go and get some coffee? I know I need caffeine." Bailey said, as she brought her hand up to her mouth and yawned.

…

Arizona was sat in the cafeteria, opposite Bailey, Meredith and Cristina. She was fiddling with her coffee quietly as they all chatted loudly about their latest surgeries.

Bailey suddenly yawned again, as she sipped her coffee and said "Little Tara kept me awake all last night. Honestly, doing the job we do, you think you know what it's like to have no sleep. But really, you have absolutely no idea just what sleep deprivation actually is, until you experience motherhood for yourself. I mean it's different for the fathers, they can switch off, but when it's your 'baby', and you have that bond. You never properly sleep deeply again…."

Meredith nodded in agreement, as Arizona just smiled politely back at Bailey and said "I can only imagine."

Cristina then raised her eyebrows, as she said bluntly "Well, that is precisely why I will never be reproducing."

"Oh, there's still hope for you yet. Mother nature could still catch up with you," Meredith teased, as she looked at her friend.

"Nope, never going to happen," Cristina replied firmly.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. How was Baltimore? How are Alex and Izzie?" Meredith suddenly said, turning to Arizona.

"Oh, they're great. Alex is doing so well out there," Arizona gushed.

Bailey smiled proudly, as she said "I always knew that boy would make a 'damn' fine ped's surgeon. Remember that time he held that new-born baby all night, saving her life?"

"Yeah," Arizona said, smiling widely with the memory, as they all chuckled. They all missed Alex.

"Although I still can't get over just how he managed to produce such adorable kids himself though, being the evil spawn and all." Bailey said, laughing again.

"Well, technically they're only fifty per cent 'evil spawn," Cristina joked.

"Yeah, that's true, and when their mother is as naturally gorgeous as Izzie, they are bound to turn out okay," Bailey added, as they all nodded their heads in agreement.

It was Meredith then, that turned to Arizona and said. "Are you okay? You've gone very pale?"

"Yeah…I think it must be something I ate or something," Arizona said, as she was suddenly hit with a sharp wave of nausea and quickly stood up to rush to the nearest bathroom.

After she had finished retching in to the empty toilet bowl, Arizona sat up and sighed as she knew exactly what she was about to do next.

With her hands trembling slightly, she reached deep in to the pocket of her scrubs, to close her shaking fingers around the long white, plastic stick that she had hidden in there for the past couple of days. She had been trying to forget it was there and to convince herself that she wouldn't use it; she would wait for Callie like they had always agreed.

But she knew in her heart, she couldn't wait any more, she needed to know, the suspense was killing her.

Sat in her office, Arizona nervously paged Callie again, although she knew she would still be in the emergency surgery that she had been rushed in to earlier that morning.

Arizona ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath, her stomach was quivering violently, her lips were dry and a lump formed in her throat as she bit her lip and twisted the white stick over and over in her hands. She needed to speak to someone, she needed to tell someone, she felt as though she was about to explode. As she picked up her phone, she realized that with Callie in surgery, there was really only one other person that she wanted to tell at that point in time.

He picked up straight away, and she could tell he was at home, as she heard one of his kids yelling for him in the background, before he said cheerfully "Hey you."

"Alex," Arizona said, her voice shaking with emotion. "We did it. I'm pregnant!"

A/N Thanks so much for the reviews. Please keep telling me what you think, and if you want the story to end here or to find our more about the AZ/Alex baby? :)