A/N - Thanks for the reviews and baby names:) I hope you like this chap!

CHAPTER 15

As the soft light of dawn crept through the windows outside, Arizona shuffled along the hospital corridor in her slippers and dressing gown. The exact same corridors that she took practically every day as a doctor. It felt more than a little weird that she was now here as a patient.

She paused a little tentatively as she reached the NICU. Just as she saw one of her favourite scrub nurses walking out towards her. She caught her eye with a friendly smile as the older woman said gently and a little sadly. "He's still in there. He's been there all night."

"Right," was all Arizona could manage to reply.

Pushing open the large swinging doors, a huge lump formed in her throat, as she immediately spotted amongst the life saving machines, beeping monitors and rows of incubators was Alex. He was sat shirtless clutching his tiny new born baby daughter closely to his naked chest, staring vacantly in to space.

He looked up as he sensed her presence. His eyes were red from crying and full of misplaced anger and sadness. Arizona carefully sat down on the empty seat next to him and she felt sick, it wasn't supposed to be like this! It was supposed to be a happy time for both her and Callie, and Alex and Izzie.

"How's she doing?" Arizona said softly, as she looked across at Alex's perfect little microscopic baby, bundled up in his arms.

"Good, she's doing good…" He replied, his voice low and a little hoarse.

"They said you've been sat here all night." Arizona said cautiously again, she knew she had to tread carefully.

"Well, what do I have to go home to? An empty home, bed. Kids that are going to be asking where their mother is? I can't face that, so I'm just going to sit here and hold my baby." Alex said as he continued to spare in to space.

"You're great with her." Arizona added kindly after a few moments of reflection as she looked at him clutching his baby still.

Alex sighed and looked away as he replied robotically. "Yeah, well, skin to skin contact is the best thing for a premature baby. Ideally with the mother but…" He trailed off then and Arizona reached for his hand. It was ironic the amount of times that they'd both said those exact same words to distraught parents of premature babies. It felt more than a little weird to now hear Alex saying them in that context about his own baby.

"Absolutely and she looks like she's doing great. I mean she couldn't be in a better place. I hear the Head pediatric surgeon here is awesome." She replied, forcing a smile as he continued to stare despondently in front of him.

"So what you call her?" Arizona then said, quickly changing the subject.

"Isabella, Bella for short." Alex replied in the same monotone, as he instinctively clutched his tiny daughter tighter to his chest even more.

"Oh….That's beautiful." Arizona replied, trying to hide the shock. It all seemed so tragic.

"Well, Izzie always wanted to call the boys Ella if they'd been girls. So I figured it would be what she would want, you know?"

"Alex, I spoke to Addison and she said that Shepherd said.." Arizona said as gently as she could, twisting her hands anxiously.

"Don't…just don't." He said as he held his hand up, just as a single tear slid down his cheek.

"Alex, if there is anything I can do. Anything at all." She replied sincerely.

"Can you bring my wife back?...Nope, didn't think so." He said, stifling a sob, as his voice cracked up followed by a steady flow of tears.

Arizona looked on completely helpless, she had never once witnessed Alex crying in the whole time she had known him. He'd always tried so hard to act the tough guy. She knew there was another side to him that he always kept locked away, but here now he had well and truly opened the door to his emotions.

"You should go home, get some rest, see your kids. I'm sure they'd love to see their Daddy." Arizona said as she placed her hand on his rubbing it reassuringly, as she added. "They'll take good care of Bella here, you know that."

"The boys are with Izzie's Mom. She got here late last night." Alex said slowly as he gently stroked Bella's little head and said. "And I'm not leaving without Izzie."

"Alex. You know that…" Arizona said, pausing, her eyes searching his face, trying to find the right thing to say.

"Shepherd said there's still a chance. She's not breathing on her own yet. But she's going to wake up. She has to wake up." Alex said passionately, his face full of emotion.

"She suffered a major trauma, Alex." Arizona said.

"Yes but she'll survive it. I know she will. Iz, won't leave me and I'm not leaving here until she wakes up." Alex replied fiercely, as Arizona just chewed her lip and looked away.

"What are you doing here anyway? Thought you'd have your hands full with your own kid?" He then said as he rubbed the side of his face. Delivering that baby had seemed like a life time ago now.

"Callie's with him at the moment. We're taking him home later." She replied a little guiltily. It just didn't seem fair that they were able to go home as a family, while Alex was stuck with a premature baby and wife that might never wake up.

Sensing her emotions, Alex's eyes softened slightly as he said. "Go on, go. Be with your little guy and wife and enjoy it." 'It could all be gone tomorrow', he thought quietly to himself.

Opening the door to her room, Arizona was met with the sight of Callie sat on the bed feeding their son a bottle, whilst Mark and Sofia looked on curiously.

"Oh, hey," Callie said as she looked up beaming. She looked so happy, Arizona thought and she gushed and for the briefest moment she forgot all about the sadness she had just felt sat with Alex.

"Congratulations!" Mark said to Arizona grinning from ear to ear. "That's one strong healthy boy you have there. He's got quite the pair of…ermm….lungs on him."

"Don't I know it." Arizona said smiling as she rubbed her tired eyes and perched on the bed next to Callie and their baby.

"How's Karev doing?" Mark added more seriously, as Callie looked up anxiously too.

"He's holding up, just. But that's more for the baby than anything. He's been with her all night. To be honest I think she's the only thing that's stopping him from falling apart."

"Well Izzie is his world. He's not going to take it too well if anything happens to her." Callie said gently as she prized the bottle away from the baby and put him over her shoulder to wind him, tapping his back lightly.

"He still thinks there is a chance she could wake up." Arizona said as she made a face at her son in Callie's arms as he became milk drunk, his little eyes slowly closing contently.

"Shepherd said it's touch and go. But Stevens is one tough cookie, she's a fighter. I think she'll pull through. I mean she got through stage 4 cancer, she can get through this." Mark said, as Callie nodded in agreement.

"I hope so, but I just don't want him to set himself up for a fall. He's got all those kids to look after now. He needs to prepare himself for the possibility that she won't wake up." Arizona said her brow creasing with worry again.

Mark rubbed his hands together then as he said playfully. "So, you decided on a name for the little guy yet? Personally I think Mark or Marcus are both excellent choices." Winking at Sofia as she giggled.

"Actually, Sofia, there's something we need your help with." Arizona said her eyes shining at her daughter as Sofia smiled excitedly back at her. "We can't decide between Timothy or Nick, so we need you to make the final decision. So, what's it going to be? What do you want to call your little brother?"

Sofia screwed her face up then, deep in concentration as she eventually said. "Timmy."

"Okay then, Timothy it is and Timmy for short." Arizona replied, giving Callie a sideways glance and smile.

"Have to save Nick for the next one then." Mark teased, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, no, there most definitely won't be a next one!" Arizona said groaning before she quickly thought of Alex again.

"Middle name then?" Callie suggested, as she stood up with their now fast asleep baby in her arms.

"Actually that was something I wanted to talk to you about.." Arizona said a little awkwardly.

Alex was still sat clutching his tiny new-born baby girl to his chest. Sensing her minute heart beat against him, giving him the strength to carry on and keep it together.

He flinched slightly as he sensed someone beside him and looking up he saw Dr Montgomery stood in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" He said a little gruffly as he looked away.

"Alex." She said, her eyes fixed on his face.

"I'm not going to sue." He said wearily.

"What?" She replied.

"You screwed up, but I'm not going to take legal action against the hospital, okay. I've already told Hunt. It's not what Izzie would want. So you can go." He snapped angrily again.

"That's not why I'm here. I came to see how you are." She said, not moving from where she was stood. Addison had experienced plenty of Alex's moods over the years and she knew only too well not to take them personally.

"Well, I'm just great." He said sarcastically. "We got the little girl we always wanted, except my wife might never get to see her."

"Alex, Derek said that there's still a chance she could.."

"I know what he said and you'd better hope for your sake he's right. You made the wrong call, Addison. You could have saved her, you could have saved Izzie." Alex said turning bright red and yelling as he suddenly realised everyone was looking at them, but by that point he was really beyond caring.

"You're upset. I'm going to go." Addison said quietly as she turned to walk out of the room.

"Alexander, you want us to call our baby, Timothy Alexander?" Callie exclaimed as she turned to look at Arizona, undoing her seat belt as they pulled up outside their house.

"I just think it would mean a lot to Alex. I mean with what he's going through and everything." Arizona replied.

"At the moment, I really don't think he'd care what we name our child." Callie said as she switched the engine off.

"After everything he's done, I think it would be a nice gesture." Arizona pleaded, trying to smile. She didn't want to argue with Callie, but she felt strongly about this.

"He hasn't done anything, he was the….. 'sperm donor." Callie said, lowering her voice as she glanced in to the mirror to see Sofia was wrapped up in the baby, busy showing him a toy, totally oblivious to the conversation her mother's were having in the front.

"Yes, I know. But that aside, he is also one of my closest friends and he 'did' bring Timmy safely in to the world." Arizona said firmly.

Callie sighed, just as they heard the tiny gurgling of Timmy about to cry. "We'll talk about it later." Callie said as she opened the car door, just as their son started to wail at the top of his lungs.

...

"Wow!" Arizona said as moments later she walked through her front door to see a big blue balloon, huge bouquet of flowers and a tall pile of beautifully wrapped blue gifts.

"It was Sofia's idea." Callie said as she followed behind holding the baby carrier and smiling at her daughter.

"We had to give all the pink presents back. So we needed to get new ones." Sofia said excitedly.

"Well I don't think little Timmy will thank us if we'd dressed him up in all those cutesy pink dresses." Callie said chuckling, putting the baby carrier down.

"Oh, I don't know, he might like dressing up in pink." Arizona said laughing some more as she squeezed Callie's hand.

"I love you," Callie said as she leaned in to kiss her wife. She knew what they had was super special and she also knew that they should savour every moment of it, as she thought about Izzie and her heart sank slightly.

"I love you too." Arizona replied, causing Callie's face to light up again as she flung her arm around her neck and they were lost in each other for a second.

"Mommy, I think Timmy's diaper needs changing." Sofia suddenly said as she stood up from where she had been knelt down by her little brother, looking at both her parents. Causing Callie and Arizona to break apart and both look at each other smirking; this was their new life now.

"I'm here, Iz. I'm so sorry I wasn't here for you before, but I'm here now." Alex said as he sat clutching his wife's hand from where she lay motionless in the hospital bed in the dimly lit room. He knew she could hear him, hear the sound of his voice. He needed to speak to her, he still hoped with all his heart that his angry answer phone message wasn't the last thing she'd listened to.

He cleared his throat as he said. "We did it, Iz. We've got the little girl we always wanted, and she's beautiful, just like her mother. You're going to love her so much, Iz. She's a real fighter too, I can tell, she's carrying the fire. I mean she probably gets that from you too. You two are going to have some arguments I'm sure. But, Iz, honestly she's so perfect and she's going to be the most loved and over protected little girl in the world. With her Daddy and two big brothers to look out for her."

He paused, as he gripped her hand even tighter and the room fell deadly quiet as he said. "We all miss you, Iz. The boys keep asking when their Mommy's coming home… and I….." He stopped talking for a second as his eyes filled with tears and he said. "I keep telling them that you and Bella will be home really soon."

He pulled her hand up to his mouth to kiss it gently as a single tear landed on it and he swore just for a second that he saw her eyelash flutter a little. But he was a doctor he knew it was just involuntary muscle movement. And he put his other hand up to brush the tears from his eyes as he said. "Because you will be, Iz. You'll be home soon and until then, I'm here, Iz. Im right here…"